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November 13, 2003
NHL Roundup
In Rochester, or "Sunny Roch," as the locals call it, the Devils and the Sabres skated to a 2-2 tie. Moving the game to Rochester, home of Buffalo's minor league affiliate, the Rochester Americans was the idea of new Sabres owner Thomas Golisano, and part of a campaign to >restore some regional pride to that part of Upstate New York. Maxim Afinogenov had the game-tying goal in the third period for Buffalo. In Manhattan, Marc-Andre Fleury got hammered by the New York Rangers, giving up six goals on 42 shots in a 6-2 Rangers win. Mark Messier, off to another hot start, had the game winner for New York, his seventh of the season. Eric Lindros left the game in the first period with an eye injury, as did the Penguins Rico Fata, who injured a hamstring after colliding with Lindros. 
Eric's return to the lineup was briefIn Chicago, Calgary jumped all over the Blackhawks, winning 6-2. Rookie Matthew Lombardi had a hat trick for Calgary, and goalie Jamie McLennan stopped 27 shots for Calgary. In Dallas, the Red Wings won their second straight, blasting the Stars, 6-2. Steve Yzerman and Pavel Datsyuk had two goals a piece, and Dominik Hasek got his second straight victory in goal for Detroit. For more detail, check out On The Wings. How much does Dallas miss Derian Hatcher? So much so, that puck moving defenseman Sergei Zubov is now -13 for the season. If only Stars owner Tom Hicks wasn't paying Alex Rodriguex all that money, he would have been able to afford to keep Hatcher in Dallas. In Anaheim, the Ducks smacked the visiting Maple Leafs, 5-1. Sergei Fedorov had two goals, and J.S. Giguere 29 saves for the Ducks. Steve Ovadia thinks the Ducks may be turning it around. Finally, here in Washington, the Capitals revived from their season long coma, and beat down the Hurricanes, 7-1. At one point in the third period, the Caps and the Hurricanes scored 4 goals in 1:16, a new NHL record. Robert Lang (who is finally playing up to his fat contract) had a hat trick, and Olie Kolzig 29 saves for the home team. But excuse Kolzig if he's refusing to get excited: "I'm disappointed with where we're at, but I'm not going to get too excited about this win,'' Kolzig said. "We're in no position to be overconfident. We're a long way from where we want to be.'' In response to the team's woes, one of my readers says he's starting a new, "Save The Caps," campaign (scroll to the bottom of the box to find his entire post). In a comment to a post I left on October 31, Pat Malone had this to say: With the NHL coming close to a possible lockout in September of 2004, a deep pall has been cast over the entire sport. Hockey is in trouble, but worst of all, once again, as a fan, my team is in trouble, yet once again. Good luck to Malone and anyone else who jumps on board. UPDATE: Over at Hockey Pundits, John Campea doesn't think that increasing the size of the net would cure what ails the NHL: Would scoring improve if the net size was increased? Yes, without a doubt it would. But the game would still be slow, boring and ground to a halt. The only difference is that 4 of the 20 shots per game would go in instead of the 2.5 per 20 shots that we see today. The Toronto Sun's Al Strachan has other ideas: "...In today's NHL, there may be a half-dozen teams who are willing to get into a shootout. If two of those teams are facing each other, the result is usually entertaining. But there are 24 other teams whose primary aim is not to allow the first goal. They want to open the scoring and defend that precipitous lead... At USA Today, Ted Montgomery has published his annual list of overrated and underrated NHL players. Thanks to Tom Benjamin for multiple links. *CORRECTION: Originally, I had written that the Caps had scored 4 goals in 1:16.
Eric
07:04 AM
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» NHL Roundup from CC NHL Weblog Tracked on November 16, 2003 03:23 PM CommentsWashington actually scored 3 of the 4 goals (1, 2, and 4) in that 76 second span; Ryan Bayda had the third goal for Carolina. The previous team record for "fastest four goals scored by two teams, Washington being one of them" was 1:26. You'd think a record like that wouldn't exist, but stats guys live for this kind of thing. Posted by: at November 13, 2003 08:59 AM Also, regarding the Caps, it's amusing that Kolzig went on record about this win. On Tuesday, Kolzig whined to the Canadian press about Washington's pitiful effort through their first 15 games. "I've never experienced anything like this before, as a pro or as an amateur," goalie Olaf Kolzig said. "It's beyond frustrating, it's embarassing." Posted by: at November 13, 2003 12:26 PM Post a commentThanks for signing in, . (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) |