December 16, 2005
NHL Roundup
Busy Thursday night in the league, with a boatload of interesting interconference matchups for every NHL fan. We should start in Philly, where an ice storm that prevented a few Flyers from getting to the rink on time delayed the start of their game with the Canucks by 30 minutes. The disruption didn't seem to bother Anson Carter, as he scored twice in Vancouver's 5-4 victory over the injury-depleted Flyers. Daniel Sedin, who along with his brother is really coming into his own, had three assists while Alex Auld, who Tom Benjamin thinks will keep the starting job vacated by an injured Dan Cloutier, had 39 saves. Meanwhile, Canucks fan J.J. Guerrero might have had something interesting to write, but he was distracted last night.
For those of you scoring at home, that's four straight wins for Vancouver, all over Eastern Conference teams.
Marty Turco had 25 saves and Jere Lehtinen and Brendan Morrow scored as the Stars shut out the Senators 2-0 in scenic Kanata. Senators fan Chris McMurtry is another blogger who has problems with officiating. Here's what he had to say about it after Ottawa's 6-2 win earlier this week over the Avalanche:
I realize I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but wow, the referees were brutal last night. On both sides. They called a stupid goaltender interference infraction on Antoine Vermette when the Colorado goalie wasn’t even in the crease (a recurring theme last night), Pierre Turgeon got a terrible interference penalty called on him that looked very questionable, and there were missed calls all night long (Mike Fisher’s slewfoot on John-Michael Liles being the most noteworthy). No wonder the players are having a hard time adjusting to the new rules. They don’t know what the f*** a penalty is. If they get away with something all night, they’re right to assume “okay, this is how the game is being called”, but then, when the refs go ahead and make an iffy call, they put into question the precedent they had set the entire game. The referees were in position to see a lot of the stuff that went uncalled, so you cannot say they didn’t see it.
In other interconference matchups:
Florida took down Detroit 3-2 in OT on an Olie Jokinen goal... Henrik Zetterberg scored again for Detroit to force OT in the first place.
Marco Sturm had his fourth goal in six games with Boston as the Bruins beat Minnesota 3-2 in St. Paul. Andrew Raycroft had 29 saves...
An absolute laser off the stick of Ethan Moreau gave Edmonton the winning goal in a 5-3 win over visiting Montreal. The Oilers scored 3 times in the third period to overtake the Canadiens. Fernando Pisani scored twice, including an empty netter in the waning moments to salt away the win for the Oil. chris from Covered in Oil is taking his cues from Sean Avery:
Crazy game tonight, people. Crazy. Freakin'. Game. Well, not really, I guess. Like I said, I only managed to catch about half of the second and all of the third, so I missed the first five scene-setting goals, but what I did see of the Oilers' Plains of Abraham-esque 5-3 smokening of Canada's Frenchingest Frenchlords was encouraging indeed, with the Oil managing once again to overcome spotty goaltending and a mentally crippled first line en route to a victory that, given the circumstances, was probably not entirely deserved.
To commemorate the win, the skulls of Montcalm and Pierre Trudeau will be displayed on the main concourse at Rexall Place until next season. Had Montreal prevailed, Edmonton GM Kevin Lowe would have had to work as a bus boy for one year at the Hotel Frontenac.
And in the last interconference matchup, Vincent Lecavalier scored a shorthanded goal in Tampa Bay's 3-1 win over the Glendale Coyotes.
Elsewhere, the unfortunately named Pekka Rinne had 35 saves in his NHL debut to lead Nashville to a 5-3 win over the visiting Blackhawks. Kimmo Timonen had two assists for the Predators. Rob Brind'Amour had Carolina's only two goals in a 2-1 Hurricanes win over the BJs.
I don't know any gypsys, but the Acid Queen is talking Hurricanes and contraction:
You can scream at me until you are blue in the face about how Carolina is 23rd in attendance this season, but it won't change a thing. For several years, Carolina was beating the Blackhawks and the Bruins and even the Sabres at the gate—and yet those three teams get a free pass while Carolina gets pilloried as an example of everything that's wrong with the NHL.
Perennial playoff powerhouse New Jersey is currently 25th in the League, yet they're getting a free pass. The NY Islanders are getting a free pass, even though their attendance is 29th in the League because fans don't want to support a coach who doesn't want to win—and on top of that, their fans are somehow considered “good fans” who are being smart by voting with their wallets and refusing to show support for a bad team.
Yet when Caniacs stayed away in droves in 03-04 because they were tired of Paul Maurice's excusemaking and the team's overall lack of effort, they somehow became ign'ant rednecks who don't know shit about shit and don't care about hockey even after game-by-game attendance started to slowly creep back up after Peter Laviolette came in and started making his changes.
Hell hath no fury like a Dixie Chick who loves her hockey. Marc Savard's OT goal gave Atlanta a 3-2 win over New Jersey.
Hockeybird is wondering what the Rangers will do with all that cap space next season. Ben Wright to the milk carton! Jes Golbez has some random thoughts. Order a calendar from Heather now! Brett Mirtle to missing persons. And the Rodent takes a look at Rangers prospect Jan Marek.
And finally, if you've got some time to waste, check out TerraServer's file of aerial photos of all 30 NHL arenas.
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Hah. I had been meaning to write something about Brett's site, so you're post finally prompted me to do so today.
Posted by:
at December 16, 2005 05:55 PM
YES! Somebody gets the reference!
That C-bus/Carolina game Thursday night was brutal as hell to watch. I had to work that evening, I had to wait until I got home so I could watch on the DVR. Was rather sad that the only guys on the ice that seemed to give a damn were Pascal Leclaire, Jaro Balastik, Mike Rupp, and Warchief Brind'amour--but a win's a win.
Posted by:
at December 17, 2005 12:35 AM
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