January 14, 2008
Monday's Blogging Roundup
With the Caps next game tomorrow against Ottawa, they spent today at Kettler getting ready. According to Tarik, Clark is questionable for tomorrow, and Brent Johnson might get the start in net, giving Olie a break after starting 11 straight games. And Ottawa will be without Dany Heatley, and possibly without Jason Spezza. Corey says that Brian Pothier isn't expected to be playing for at least a week.
Japers' Rink links over to the blog Alex Ovetjkin, which has an interesting interview with Chelyabinsk Traktor skater and former Cap Andrei Nikolishin. He applauds Ovie for his new contract, while bashing McPhee and the Caps organization for how they destoyed the team in the years after their '98 Cup run.
In 1998 we had a magnificent team, without stars, but with good chemistry. But the new general manager McPhee managed to destroy the team. Just because of some $200K-$300K (for overseas standards these are peanuts) he was not signing for a long time, if I am not mistaken, Owen, Bondra, Gonchar, Zednik. Then after strange trades all core players, Gonchar, Konowalchuk, Zednik, Bondra, Witt have left the team.
And if you read between the lines of his congrats to Ovie, he takes yet another shot at the organization.
Alexander plays physical style of hockey which can lead to injuries. In this sense he has made an excellent decision insuring himself for at least 13 years.
While praising Alex, Nikolishin hints his feelings that Alex won't last 13 seasons, and will gyp the Caps out of millions on the tail-end of his contract.
According to Mr. Leonsis, a lot of Caps season ticketholder seats were filled with Flyers fans; an image that brings to mind Giants fans selling their tickets to Patriots fans just a few weeks ago. As a Pats fan I thought what the Giants fans did was pretty funny. As a Caps fan, it's not quite as humorous.
Over at A View From the Cheap Seats CapsChick has a nice piece on Mike Green, where she voices something I've been thinking for a few days now; "...someone explain to me how he wasn't picked as an All-Star again?" It's a good question, but one that won't be answered anytime soon.
Update: 3 Grumpy Caps Fans has a pretty good explanation of why Green won't be in Atlanta. The sheer number of teams means that generally only 1 skater per team gets in. But it still leaves me asking: If that's the case, why is Kimmo Timonen, who's in along with fellow Flyer Mike Richards, in over Green?
href="http://peerlessprognosticator.blogspot.com/2008/01/hockey-firstgame-played-on-cherry-jello.html">The Peerless has a couple great photos from an AHL game between the Norfolk Admirals and the Hartford Wolfpack, with both teams playing on dark pink ice. Apparently it was "Pink in the Rink" breast cancer awareness night in Norfolk. After having to look at that ice all game, I'd hope they would follow that up with optical awareness night, maybe with free vision tests.
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I've taken a shot at expaining why Green didn't make the All-Star team at 3 Grumpy Caps Fans, but in a nutshell, here's the reason, and it's no mystery: There are so many teams in the league right now that they can only select one skater per team, plus three additional skaters. When you factor in the starting lineup, that's selected by fans, that may leave only one or two additional slots. That's why Malkin and Green are not in the game, and why Kovalchuk didn't make it last year! Toronto, Boston, Montreal, and Buffalo had NO forwards or goalies selected, so you KNEW they were getting defensemen on the All-Star team. Could you imagine the uproar in Toronto if no Leaf was selected?! As long as there are 15 teams per conference, and only 18 skaters per team, snubs like this will continue to happen. Especially in markets where hockey is not king.
Posted by:
at January 15, 2008 09:59 AM
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