Archive for the 'Around the NHL' Category
Posted by fts on 14th, 2009
New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur reached another milestone on his illustrious career with his 103 career shutout, coming off the Devils 3-0 win Monday night against the Buffalo Sabers in Buffalo. The 103rd shutout of his career put him atop the all-time list, tied with Terry Sawchuck (103).
Brodeur’s accomplishments and records are ones that won’t be easy or even possibly reachable for many active goaltenders in the league today. His NHL goaltending records are as followed, most career wins at 575 and counting, most consecutive 30 win seasons (12), most consecutive 35 win seasons (11), most 40 win season (7), most wins in a single season (48), and now reaching most career shutouts at 103 and counting, not too mention Brodeur is also a 3-time Stanley Cup Champion. When Terry Sawchuck retired from the NHL nobody could have thought his 103 career shutouts would have ever been reached or even broken.
Brodeur realizes he has been setting a significantly high bar for many goaltenders too reach in the future, “I think it’s a bar that I put for goalies, people in the past put bars for goalies to excel and I’ve reached them. Hopefully I’ll raise ‘em up and good for the guy that’s going to go after them. I’ve been having a pretty good ride. It’s been pretty tremendous what we’ve accomplished here in New Jersey and for myself, so for any goalie to get to the wins and shutout records it means they’re going to be real successful. All the power to them if they’re able to get there” Brodeur said. With his latest achievement, I think if it hasn’t been clear already it should be now, Martin Brodeur will go down as the greatest goaltender of all-time until somebody else comes around and duplicates the kind of career the Devils goalie has had. Brodeur was selected 20th overall in the 1990 NHL Draft by the Devils, and in his second full season with the Devils in 1994-95 he won his first Stanley Cup by sweeping the much favored Detroit Red Wings.
Since his first Stanley Cup Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils have go on to win 2 more while losing one in a game 7 to the Colorado Avalanche in 2000-2001. The Devils goalie is the youngest player to reach 300, 400, and 500 career wins; he got his record 552 career win on March 17, 2009 when the Devils beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 at the Prudential Center in New Jersey. With every year that comes it seems Brodeur has another record to reach and another accomplishment to achieve, it won’t be impossible but don’t expect many too reach him. Martin Brodeur and the Devils are currently 1st in the Atlantic with 41 points, as they look to make a strong run into the playoffs come April. – breaking sports news check out The Sports Weekly.
Grab practical recommendations about golf stretching exercise – please make sure to study the webpage. The times have come when proper information is really at your fingertips, use this chance.
Posted by fts on 2nd, 2009
Let’s go back twenty years to the Olympics of Lake Placid. It was 1980, and in those years the NHL hockey stars could not be chosen for the Olympics. The athletes were chosen at the National Sports Festival in Colorado Springs, Co., where they went to demonstrate their skills. After rigorous training and months of playing together as a team, they were finally at the Olympics, and the chant “USA! USA!” was making the arena shake, as this team of young college men were about to upset Czechoslovakia by a score of 7 to 3.
Czechoslovakia won the silver medal in the previous Olympics, and was the world champion team in both 1976 and 1978. This was only two days after the US team had battled to a 2 to 2 tie with Norway, another game no one really thought they had a chance to win. For the hockey faithful in America, this was starting to be the best Olympics since 1960.
Maybe the crowd gave a home advantage to the hockey team, allowing them to put their emotions into the game so that it improved their play. As coach Herbie Brooks said, “We had our minds going flat-out and our legs under control.” His style was hard and fast skating, and working together as a team, and in that game each player showed how well he understood that style of hockey. The Olympics ice hockey rink is 100 feet wide, which means there is a lot of open ice, and Coach Brooks style tended toward breaking toward open ice and skating hard. He had adopted the European style of hockey in order to be able to fight against it most effectively. As he said “We had to cram two or three years of experience playing this way into five months of exhibition games.”
There are always key players on hockey teams, and Coach Brooks knew he would need a very good goalie, who at times could give a superior performance. Jim Craig, the former Boston University goalie, came through against Czechoslovakia. The opposing team goalie, Jiri Kralik, did not have a good night. The entire US team was young, with an average age of twenty-two, and perhaps a young team did not have enough experience to know that they weren’t skilled enough to beat the top European teams.
When all of the teams arrived in Lake Placid, right wing Dave Silk spent some time looking over the other teams and nationalities. He saw that the Czechs had “Russian muscles”, which meant that it wasn’t hard for them to hold a defenseman at bay during the game. He found the East Germans the most unsettling, for they used their spare time to play a game called Submarine, where they kept sinking American battleships. Coach Brooks knew that his team was comparing themselves and told them “You go up to the tiger, spit him in the eye, and then shoot him.” The strong hand of the coach, the amazing effort of the young team, and the enthusiasm of the crowd allowed the team to bring home the gold medal.
To have the whiter smile, visit best teeth whiteners. best teeth whiteners will get beatiful smile for you. Click here to get FREE trial celebrity smile : best teeth whiteners
Posted by fts on 2nd, 2009
African-Americans have lost a lot of their history due to slavery and racism before during and after the civil rights movement. Yet history was made when a Canadian-born black man named Willie O’Ree who played 41 games (3 1/2 years/seasons) with the Boston Bruins and this was 1958 at a time blacks didn’t have much ground in the world since this was a milestone since hockey was a white male dominated sport and for O’Ree since at the time he started his career he was 23 years old. The sport hockey was about 10 years late when it came to integration of minorities in the NHL because all the other sports had already made the transition by the 1950.
Hockey was the only sport holding out since it was what you called the whitest sport ever since they had no black players, team owners, or sportswriters. O’Ree was crossing lines many blacks of his time had a heck of a time playing and being taken seriously in sports. Blacks have not made their place in the hockey world again for nearly 30 years.
It wasn’t until 1998 that Willie O’Ree was formally acknowledged for his groundbreaking historical position as the first black in the NHL and was appointed director for youth development for the NHL/USA Hockey diversity task force where he goes all over the country establishing programs with different teams. This was a milestone that was long overdue to happen because the face of sports would show some sign that the walls of racism and segregation have started to crumble down. When someone who lived in a time where the color of your skin limited you to advance in something, but it was one man who stepped out of the confinements of racism and segregation to be one of the best players in the NHL. Today’s NHL has recruited people of other ethnic backgrounds to the pro teams that currently make up the team list.
It’s showing that it’s not just whites who made the NHL it’s the fact that more opportunities in the league now more than ever with how they’re recruiting players, team managers, and other areas of the league. When you remove racism and segregation the world of opportunity looks brighter for those who are of a different ethnic background to feel like they can succeed in another area of the sports world.
Hockey will definitely improve with time to allow other ethnic groups to be recruited to play hockey. Until then it will be a majority black and white issue in the league and that’s up to the world to demand to see the full equality that should be in the league and around not just players, team owners/management, but also stretching itself to the audience the sport is trying to draw in to diversify the sport to be a sport anyone can play and enjoy watching. Willie O’Ree spends much of his time in San Diego since he left the league when his knee was so bad that later on he had to undergo a full knee replacement, but his time is spent traveling the country lecturing and working his position as director of youth development for the NHL’s diversity task force. With O’Ree’s current position this should set the league in the right direction in terms of diversifying the sport of hockey.
Diversity has opened the door for people of all ethnicities to enjoy and it’s a shared interest across the board for all ages. Some make it a family event to incorporate a single sport and in a region where hockey is popular it’s the choice sport for some people.
To watch movies online free now, visit watch movies online free now. watch movies online free now to start watch your free movies. You can watch movies online free now in here : watch movies online free now
Posted by admin on 26th, 2009
No, there wont be any dancing involved and barring some strange twilight zone scenario you probably wont see any telescopes either. There will be Stars though.
For hardcore Dallas Stars fans this year has been pretty hard to watch, in fact possibly one of the hardest in recent years. From the get-go this has been a year when the Stars simply were not meant to go super-nova. It all started right back at the start of the season when Brett Hull announced with a big smile on his face that the team signed Sean Avery to a contract worth twice his value for years double what you’d think right through and continued til recently when Brad Richards broke his wrist, only to break the OTHER one on his first game back! Losing Captain Brendan Morrow sure didn’t help with the teams grand plans either, nor did Zubov being out for all but 10 games and a multitude of other injuries to players like Lehtinen, Parrish & Brunnstrom. In fact at recent count over 300 man hours of games have been lost to injuries this season.
This season’s Dallas Stars remind me of the old nursery rhyme… “Twinkle Twinkle little star, how i wonder what you are”.
Who are you? Or, to be more accurate, what are you expected to be?
Brad Richards injury had the team turning to Mike Modano to fill his role. All of a sudden the 38 year old who has spent much of the past 2 seasons on the 3rd line as a checking center was expected to play 22+ minutes on the 2nd line and do so like he was in his prime. Forgive me, but while Mike is a legend and still one of the best in the game, he’s not the guy he was when the Stars won the cup in ‘99.
The blue line suffered all year long with rookie mistakes, lackluster performances and a vast constellation of turnovers, pun intended. It’s no wonder either considering you have Stephane Robidas and Nicklas Grossman expected to play #1 Defenseman minutes with the same skill, tenacity and patience that Zubov delivered.
All that aside, mediocre defensive performances and less “punchy” top lines can still win games. Afterall, the last line of defense is none other than “the wall”, Marty Turco. Surely after his standout performances in last years playoffs he could help carry this depleted & fatigued to a playoff spot. Right? Normally, yes but it would appear at some time between game 1 and game 71 of this season Marty Turco forgot how to stop pucks on a consistent basis. With no quality back-up goalie to challenge Marty for the net, it appears even Marty forgot who he is.
What a year! Many Stars fans will be happier when this season ends than they were when Sean Avery got the boot out of big D.
What now? Clearly this team needs a change. The Two-Headed Snake of Brett Hull and Les Jackson did not impress fans when they failed to deliver a #1 defenseman at the trade deadline, instead opting to get Brenden Morrison to replace Brad Richards. An ok move, but not one that really helped this struggling team.
The off season is now the focus for many Stars fans. What will this team get? What do they need? Who will stay or go? Here are some interesting points to ponder…
Sergei Zubov and Jere Lehtinen’s contracts are both up this year. Both are top players if they’re not injured. Is the risk too much to re-sign them? I believe both are worth keeping hold of if the price is right. Neither of these guys are able to ask for big contracts due to their ongoing injuries, but the cost of not re-signing them could be too high.
Mike Modano has another year on his contract but many fans believe he’s done and should retire. I disagree. Age slows him down, but doesn’t deaden his passion. The team should not rely on Mike to be the player he was 10 years ago.
Even if Zubov returns, he’s no longer able to be relied on as the #1 defenseman. Should the Stars make a post season trade to get a Bouwmeester, Kaberle or Redden?
With Brian Sutherby getting a contract extension, does that mean Joel Lundqvist is one the way out? Maybe we could send him to the Rangers in a deal to bring Redden here. Brothers unite!
Marty Turco no longer has a NTC i believe after his dismall play this year, so could the team look to ship him out?
If i were to make just one change to the current Dallas Stars system, it would be this. I would remove Brett Hull from the GM position and put him somewhere else. While the co-GM situation was great for a while, the Sean Avery incident proved that Brett Hull is not, and possibly never will be a good General Manager of an NHL team.
I leave you with this thought. If the Dallas Stars had never signed Sean Avery, how do you believe the team would look right now?
Posted by admin on 25th, 2009
Alexander Ovechkin sure made an impression with his 50th goal celebration, and it surprises me that so many people have come down hard on the guy. Here we have possibly the most talented scorer in the game since Gretzky was in his prime, who takes an almost child-like joy in everything he does on the ice. His love for the game shines with every goal, every deke and every slick move he makes.
It would appear though that many simply don’t like that. Don Cherry, possibly the last person I would go to for a view on the modern NHL came down extraordinarily hard on Ovechkin.
Seriously, what is the problem? Here’s a guy who’s the hottest goal scorer in the game, having some fun whiling pointing out that “yes, i am damn not!”
You know what though? The modern NHL NEEDS people like Ovechkin. Yes, you heard me right…
The modern NHL needs this type of goofy, fun-loving character.
Each year we hear about how the NHL is trying to get people “into” the game. Any of this sound familiar?
- More goals
- Bigger nets
- Smaller goalie pads
- New penalties
- Faceoff in offensive zone on PPs.
It’s all about bums on seats! Bettman’s NHL seems to believe that higher scoring games will bring new people in. Wrong Mr Bettman! While high scoring games may be good for a quick bit of fun, the long drawn-out 1-1 games where the teams battle end to end for 60 minutes or more are MUCH more exciting.
But i digress… it’s all about people through the doors, and bums on seats. Which brings me back to Alexander Ovechkin, and his over exuberant goal celebrations.
Kids love this guy. There are 8 year olds out there watching Alex thinking to themselves “I want to play hockey!”. Children and adults alike are being drawn back to the game because people like Alex make it fun to watch. He makes the game entertaining and fun to watch. More importantly he has people paying their money to get through that door, and to get their bums on seats to watch him play.
Jeremy Roenick went on radio saying:
“You know what? I love Ovechkin. I think this kid is great, he’s great for the game, he’s great for the young kids to watch. The energy this kid shows, the talent he shows, what he does on the ice is just spectacular, and, you know, so what? He goes and puts his stick down and, you know, he is hot. He is hot. He’s telling everybody that he’s red hot, and his stick is hot, he’s … letting everybody in the world know that he knows that he’s good and that he’s hot.”
Islanders defenseman Brendan Witt was quoted as saying:
“But the game has changed. You’ve got the instigator rule, so, players can’t police each other without facing the consequences. It’s a different era, the new NHL, and I think the league wants to see more of it.”
Clearly, Alex does have some fans around the league.
And you know what? If letting Alex be Alex means getting new fans through those doors, i’m all for it.
Images courtesy of sports.yahoo.com and nhl.com
Posted by admin on 22nd, 2009
NHL Transactions, Wednesday 21 January 2009.
Source: Yahoo! Sports
Powered by ScribeFire.
Posted by admin on 3rd, 2009
So far we’ve seen the Pittsburgh Penguins face off against the Buffalo Sabres and the Detroit Red Wings take on the Chicago Blackhawks. Now that the 2009 Winter Classic is over with, fans are left wondering;
Who could be potential future match-ups?
Before you can really start to make a list you need to think about what goes in to a good Winter Classic game.
Rivalry is the most important feature in my opinion. Having 2 rival teams going against each other in the cold out doors seems allmost… fitting.
How about “old Vs new”?
I would love to see a match-up between the Dallas Stars and their old home-town “new team” Minnesota Wild. While these 2 teams may not have a rivalry, this game would provide plenty of excitement for fans.
So here’s my list of top 5 Winter Classic games i would like to see.
- Dallas Stars @ Minnesota Wild. This gets #1 for 2 reason; 1) i’m slightly biased being a Stars fan, but more importantly 2) because up in Minnesota people still talk about how the Stars turned their back on the fans. Crazy i know, but for fans, this game could be huge.
- Montreal Canadiens @ Toronto Maple Leafs. Is there a bigger rivalry?
- Washington Capitals @ New York Rangers. The Winter Classic has seen Sid the kid, now it’s time to introduce it to Ovy.
- New York Rangers @ Boston Bruins. A classic match-up if there ever was one.
- Philadelphia Flyers @ Pittsburgh Penguins. The battle of Pensylvania.
Gary Bettman and the NHL seem keen on focussing on the US teams for the Winter Classic, possibly in a hope to increase ratings within the US. While I understand the logic here, i do disagree with it. The Habs Vs Leafs game would be fantastic to watch, even for fans of other teams.
Posted by admin on 2nd, 2009
One of the biggest surprises this season has been the shocking start by the Dallas Stars.
Always a solid defensive team which dominated on both the power play and penalty kill, the Stars this season have been anything but good.
Sitting at the bottom of the West for much of the season, many are wondering if they have what it takes to bounce back and make the top eight.
Sadly, the Stars are without solid power-forward and captain Brenden Morrow and the ageless puck-moving master of the blue line, Sergei Zubov. As such, their power play has lacked power and their penalty kill has been riddled with more holes than a war-torn building.
But there is hope. Now that the Avery situation is a thing of the past, the team looks to be bouncing back. They’re 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, and have moved up three spots on the ladder to be just three points out of the top eight. Parity truly is their friend this season.
Most people would agree that the Stars have the line-up, and the potential to get a big streak going and dominate the latter part of the season. Marty Turco must have gone hunting lately as he appears to have found his game.
Brad Richards is leading the team with his quality playmaking and the youngsters Loui Eriksson and James Neal have stepped up to impress even the most negative of Stars fans.
Let’s not forget Mike Modano, either. At 38 he’s playing like he’s in his 20s. Each shift he takes he does so with passion and a die-hard attitude that screams “never say die”. Best of all, he smiles.
You can see that he’s enjoying the game again, and it’s showing in his game. He’s stepped up take on an offensive role after being in a checking role for the last season or so.
On the blue line, Robidas and Daley are leading by example, and the young guys, Grossman and Niskanen are improving their games.
And what of Fabian Brunnstrom, you may ask? He’s getting his game on also. Inconsistent maybe, but when you watch him play and you watch him score you see he’s a pure goal scorer. He has the type of natural talent you see in players like Kovalchuk, Hossa and Ovechkin.
He’s working on his defensive game, and is working his way into a more prominant role on this team. Give him time, i have no doubt he’ll be a force on this team in the coming year or so.
So the question is… can they do it? Can they come out of this hole they find themselves in and ride a solid challenge for the Cup?
Of course they can. I firmly believe teams like Detroit and San Jose are probably watching the Stars carefully, because they know all too well what this team can do if it gets it’s game on.
Posted by admin on 2nd, 2009
The Duncan Keith and the Chicago Blackhawks attempted a comeback late in the game but it wasn’t to be. The Detroit Red Wings dominated the third period of the game to carry a 6-4 victory into the final buzzer.
Game Summary…
Goals:
| 1st Period |
| Chicago |
3:24, Kris Versteeg 11 (power play) (Martin Havlat, Brent Seabrook) |
|
| Detroit |
9:50, Mikael Samuelsson 8 (power play) (Henrik Zetterberg, Marian Hossa) |
|
| Chicago |
12:37, Martin Havlat 10 (power play) (Kris Versteeg, Brian Campbell) |
|
| Chicago |
19:18, Ben Eager 7 (Martin Havlat) |
|
| 2nd Period |
| Detroit |
1:14, Jiri Hudler 14 (Marian Hossa, Henrik Zetterberg) |
|
| Detroit |
12:43, Jiri Hudler 15 (Daniel Cleary, Brian Rafalski) |
|
| Detroit |
17:17, Pavel Datsyuk 16 (Johan Franzen, Brian Rafalski) |
|
| 3rd Period |
| Detroit |
3:07, Brian Rafalski 5 (power play) (Jiri Hudler, Tomas Holmstrom) |
|
| Detroit |
3:24, Brett Lebda 3 (Henrik Zetterberg, Marian Hossa) |
|
| Chicago |
19:50, Duncan Keith 5 (power play) (unassisted) |
Penalties:
| 1st Period |
| Detroit |
hooking – 2 min |
0:37, P. Datsyuk |
| Detroit |
too many men on the ice – 2 min |
2:06, Bench served by J. Hudler |
| Chicago |
slashing – 2 min |
4:52, B. Eager |
| Chicago |
roughing – 2 min |
7:53, D. Byfuglien |
| Detroit |
puck over glass – 2 min |
11:27, B. Lebda |
| Detroit |
roughing – 2 min |
13:01, A. Lilja |
| 2nd Period |
| Detroit |
interference with goaltender – 2 min |
4:28, M. Hossa |
| Chicago |
high sticking – 2 min |
4:35, J. Toews |
| Chicago |
tripping – 2 min |
10:42, B. Campbell |
| 3rd Period |
| Chicago |
holding – 2 min |
2:20, J. Wisniewski |
| Detroit |
holding – 2 min |
19:07, V. Filppula |
Posted by admin on 2nd, 2009
40 Minutes have been played of the 2009 NHL Winter Classic, and after being dominated by the Black Hawks in the first period, the Red Wings came back hard in the 2nd, led by Jiri Hudler. Just over a minute into the 2nd, Hudler put the puck in the net to make it a 1 shot game. Hudler scored again at the 12 minute mark to tie the game up. Pavel Datsyuk put the Wings ahead 4-3 near the end of the period, to help the Wings take a 4-3 lead into the 2nd intermission.
Period 2 Breakdown…
Goals:
| Detroit |
1:14, Jiri Hudler 14 (Marian Hossa, Henrik Zetterberg) |
|
| Detroit |
12:43, Jiri Hudler 15 (Daniel Cleary, Brian Rafalski) |
|
| Detroit |
17:17, Pavel Datsyuk 16 (Johan Franzen, Brian Rafalski) |
Penalties:
| Detroit |
interference with goaltender – 2 min |
4:28, M. Hossa |
| Chicago |
high sticking – 2 min |
4:35, J. Toews |
| Chicago |
tripping – 2 min |
10:42, B. Campbell |
