October 06, 2005
NHL Roundup
Ahhh. So good to be back looking over boxscores instead of parsing the latest PR stunt associated with the CBA. To my readers: Thanks for sticking with Off Wing through our long national nightmare. It's great to be back. And it's even better to see plenty of new folks try their hand at hockey blogging.
Let's get started.
In New Jersey, Sid Crosby's debut was spoiled when the Pens were dumped by the Devils, 5-1. Though Crosby assisted on the Pens only goal, the real star of the night was Devils goalie Martin Brodeur. In just the first ten minutes of the game, as the Pens outshot New Jersey 14-2, Brodeur was perfect, and stopped 36 shots on the night. U.S. college product Brian Gionta tallied a goal and an assist for New Jersey.
A friend in the crowd last night in New Jersey passed along this note:
Overheard at the Devils game last night: Overrated, clap, clap, clap-clap-clap - everytime Crosby was shut down. The kid has some potential, I just hope he doesn't show it as long as he's on the Penguins.
Something tells me that's unlikely. About 4 hours down I-95, Alex Ovechkin took the lead in the race for the Calder as he scored twice in a 3-2 Caps win over Columbus. After Ovechkin's second goal, Washington got the game winner from Dainius Zubrus. Olie Kolzig stopped 35 shots for the Caps (get used to it Olie) and Dan Fritsche tallied twice for the BJs. For a hometown perspective, check out japers' Rink.
In Buffalo, the Sabres downed the Islanders 6-4. The opening goal was scored by Buffalo's J.P. Dumont, who Isles GM Mike Milbury traded away for a bag of pucks a couple of years back. Since then, Dumont has gone on to score 102 goals. Ryan Miller had 22 saves, while New York's Rick DiPietro had 33. Relive it all in the Sabrefans.com gameday thread.
In Boston, Michael Ryder scored with 12 seconds remaining to lift the Habs to a 2-1 win over the Bruins. For those of you who care about such things, the Boston arena is now known as TD Banknorth Garden. Jose Theodore had 29 saves, and Heather Creegan's main squeeze, Patrice Bergeron, scored Boston's lone goal.
In Philly, the Rangers scored three in the third period to dump the Flyers 5-3. Jaromir Jagr scored twice, but my favorite goal of the night came as Mike Richards took a two-line pass, fought off Rangers defender Fedor Tutin and put the puck past Kevin Weekes.
In Sunrise, Florida, the Panthers took down the Thrashers, sans Kovalchuk, 2-0. Roberto Luongo stopped 34 shots in recording the 24th shutout of his career.
Did I mention that Luongo was traded to Florida by Isles GM Mike Milbury? Since that trade, Luongo has posted 23 of his 24 career shutouts, and never posted a save percentage lower than .915. Just saying...
Elsewhere in Florida, Tampa Bay fans got the night they were cheated out of last Fall, as the team finally raised its first Stanley Cup banner. Later, they efficiently disposed of Carolina, 5-2. Be sure to share the joy with John Fontana.
The league's first shootout saw Ottawa win the first skirmish in the Battle of Ontario, 3-2. Daniel Alfredsson scored twice for Ottawa, and put one past Ed Belfour in the shootout. Dominik Hasek stopped 23 shots, before stoning Eric Lindros to win the shootout for the Sens.
Don at the Battle of Ontario is feeling a little insecure:
6 of 7 TSN experts pick the Senators to win the cup.
4 of 6 from the Sportsnet panel pick the Sens to be in the final.
0 of 7 experts from ESPN pick the Sens to win the cup.
Damn Americans. I hate those bastards.
That's Ok Don, we love you anyway. And it looks like Paul Kariya is going to love Nashville, as he scored a goal in the Preds' 3-2 win over preseason favorite San Jose. I wanted to get some insight from Jason Kirk at Predators Den, but he's MIA on the World Series of Poker Circuit since August and hasn't been seen since.
Off Wing reader and Minnesota native Ellie Shaw went home happy after the Stars rallied from 4 goals down in the first period to beat LA 5-4. Jeremy Roenick scored twice in his debut for the Kings, but it was Phillipe Boucher who was the hero when he scored the go-ahead goal for Dallas in the third period.
And speaking of Minnesota, the trapping Wild scored six times, and got three goals from Josie's brother Marc in a 6-3 win over Calgary. The Ducks dumped the Hawks in Chicago, 5-3, as both Niedermayers scored. Edmonton edged Colorado 4-3 as Shawn Horcoff scored twice for Edmonton, but some edge was taken off the victory for Mike Winters:
The only thing that sucked was I missed about half of the goals in the first few minutes, thanks to TSN's steadfast resolve to stick with the last minutes of the 6-3 Calgary/Minnesota game, which seemed to have a stoppage every ten seconds, with an injury, and a timeout thrown in for good measure. The Flames find a way to vex Oilers fans even when we don't play them. At least they lost!
And finally, in Vancouver, the Canucks spoiled Wayne Gretzky's debut as a head coach, defeating Phoenix 3-2. Markus Naslund scored twice for the Canucks.
It's great to be back. Only 81 games to go till the playoffs.
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I hope you didn't think I was serious about the American crack.
I was actually kind of making fun of a Liberal member of parliament who made that statement and ended up being kicked out of her party.
But - hey - any press is good press, right? Right?
Don from battleofontario.blogspot.com
Posted by:
at October 6, 2005 03:43 PM
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