Welcome to NHL Shop.org – your NHL merchandise store! Licensed NHL and NCAA hockey merchandise, including jerseys, hats, shirts, jackets, collectibles, apparel, retro gear and gifts. Gear and equipment – skates, jerseys, sticks and pucks. Hockey video games, books, posters, DVDs, toys and much more!
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: nhl
Here are your Puck Previews: Spotlighting the key games in NHL action, news and views as well as general frivolity. Make sure to stop back here for the nightly Three Stars when the games are finished.
Preview: Boston Bruins at Toronto Maple Leafs, 7 p.m. EST. Boston plays their first game since the Matt Cooke(notes) his on Marc Savard(notes) and they will also be without Zdeno Chara(notes) as he's day-to-day with a "lower-body injury". For the Leafs, Luca Caputi(notes) will find himself promoted to the top line alongside Phil Kessel(notes) (pointless in all four meetings against Boston this season) and Tyler Bozak(notes) in his first home game with Toronto. Tim Thomas(notes) will be in goal for Boston, while Jonas Gustavsson(notes) is expected to get the start for the Leafs. And might we see Colton Orr(notes) and Milan Lucic(notes) dance again?
Preview: Vancouver Canucks at Colorado Avalanche, 9 p.m. EST. With both teams separated by two points, this Northwest Division battle is key for both teams as we hit the final month of the season. Vancouver is winding down their 14-game road trip and will finally return home on Saturday night, while the Avalanche enter tonight 2-2-0 since the NHL resumes last week. Vancouver has outscored Colorado 16-4 in their past three meetings this season and look to continue that trend and extend their divisional lead. Watch this game live on Y! Sports
Check out previews and updated scores for all of today's games on the Y! Sports NHL scores and scheds page.
Evening Reading
• An armed man stole an unknown amount of cash from a Buffalo-area Auntie Anne's mall pretzel stand and then swiped a Sidney Crosby(notes) jersey from another store's office before escaping. [Buffalo News] s/t to David C. for sending that in
• Plans for the 2010 Pinstripe Bowl were finalized today with the college football bowl game to be played at Yankee Stadium on December 30th. There goes any chance of the NHL holding the next Winter Classic in the Bronx. [Yankees]
• Mike Milbury believes the Matt Cooke hit isn't a suspendable play and "His job is to make sure he punishes people when he gets the opportunity. Intent to injure? I don’t know. That’s a hard one to pin on anybody. Certainly, ready to finish his check with authority.” He went on to blame the Bruins players on the ice for not retaliating right after. [WEEI] s/t Kukla
• Stephen Brunt believes Gary Bettman isn't the man to take the NHL to the next step. [Globe & Mail]
• Not talking about his February DUI charge, Edmonton Oilers goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin(notes) did say that despite being out for the rest of the year after back surgery, he'd like to get on the ice before the end of the season. [Edmonton Journal]
• Chained to the Tampa Bay bench by Barry Melrose a year ago, Lightning center Steven Stamkos(notes) is on pace 51 goals this season. [TampaBay.com]
Puck Buddy Comment of the Day: Chiming in on the headshot debate, BartK chimes in:
"Basically the rule will be changed in some way very soon because the league has to does something about it or someone will be killed. It’s because so many of the players have no respect for one another now. The check technically was legal based on the current rules but Cooke should have realized he was vulnerable and let up a little. That’s the main problem here, showing respect for your fellow player. It’s ironic because most of the hits come from marginal players on the lower end of the salary range that could be out of a career if they ever took a hit like that. Checking needs to stay in the game and there will still be hard hitting in the game as proven in the Olympics, but the marginal stuff needs to go and it has to begin with the players knowing better. If they don’t know better or choose not to respect one another they will ruin it and the league will step in and change the rule. The Olympics had some great hitting and that was with their ‘hits to the head rule’, so you can’t say it will take the hitting out of the game, it will just help to get rid of the questionable hits that ruin the game."
Bold Prediction: The Anaheim Ducks are the only home team to win tonight.
Categories: Uncategorized Tags:
Growing up and watching Don Cherry's Rock'em Sock'em hockey VHS tapes as a kid, Grapes always seemed to mention any one of the numerous end-to-end rushes that Bobby Orr would perform as a member of the Boston Bruins. Every time Orr would rush the puck in those videos, things would end with a goal for the Bruins, five embarrassed skaters on the ice and a joyous Cherry expressing his mancrush on him.
Montreal Canadiens prospect P.K. Subban(notes) is a defenseman like the great No. 4 and has a knack for these spectacular end-to-end rushes as well. Currently with the Hamilton Bulldogs of the American Hockey League, Subban added another highlight-reel play to his YouTube resume in a game against the Chicago Wolves last Friday night:
How he was allowed that much ice to skate is a mystery, but it's not hard to blame the Chicago defense for getting caught watching the play and allow the J.T. Wyman(notes) goal.
Subban wasn't finished on the weekend as on Saturday night, he took his skills to the shootout against the Hartford Wolf Pack and showed off his Datsyukian hands:
His pausing in the crease while looking down at the goaltender after he scores is a nice touch by Subban and reminds you of an NFL player laying out a big hit and standing over his helpless opponent.
The 20-year old Subban played two games with the Canadiens before the Olympic break recording two assists and depending on how the next handful of games go for the Canadiens, could find himself back up in the NHL soon enough.
s/t to The Score for finding both videos
Categories: Uncategorized Tags:
Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.
• David Shoalts reports that the GMs will recommend a rule banning blindside hits to the head from a shoulder. The rule will be further tweaked and presented Wednesday to all 30 GMs. If approved by the NHL's competition committee and board of governors, it will go into effect next season. [Globe & Mail]
• Another change being discussed is the standings tiebreaker. Kevin Allen of USA Today reports that GMs are in favor of making the first tiebreaker "fewest shootout wins" instead of "most wins", which it is currently. [@kausatoday]
• According to Sidney Crosby's(notes) agent, Pat Brisson, the Pittsburgh Penguins superstar had a full schedule and was unable to appear on the "Late Show with David Letterman" last week. Or he realized how big a of Leafs fan Dave is. [Post-Gazette]
• ThePensBlog has an excellent take on the entire "controversy". [tPb]
• The NHL predicts the Phoenix Coyotes will lose $20 million this season, “less than the $40 million to $50 million previously estimated by attorneys and others involved in the team’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.” Er, uh … congrats? [Biz Journal]
• Columbus Blue Jackets captain Rick Nash(notes) left last night's game against Los Angeles early with a "lower-body injury". He's not expected to be in the lineup tonight against Anaheim. [Puck-Rakers]
• Cheers to David Perron(notes) of the St. Louis Blues for donating $4,500 to the Red Cross' relief efforts in Haiti. In February, Perron pledged $1 for every new follower he gained on his Twitter account. [Frozen Notes]
• Winners of six of their last 20 games, New Jersey Devils head coach Jacques Lemaire held a team meeting after practice this morning to express his unhappiness. [NJ.com]
• Nashville will be without defenseman Denis Grebeshkov(notes) for a while after taking a puck to the groin and ... wait for it ... undergoing surgery on one of his testicles. Our male readers just felt a bit uncomfortable. [Tennessean]
• With all of the positive press he's received since leading the U.S. hockey team to the silver medal, the Wall Street Journal asks, "Can a Goalie Be a Superstar?". [WSJ]
• Do you live in Winnipeg? Are you a good driver? Then expect to be pulled over by local and given free tickets to an Old Timer's Game featuring a handful of ex-NHLers. [Winnipeg Free Press]
• A Belfast Giants player is facing marijuana charges in the U.S. after being indicted by a New York City grand jury last week. [Belfast Telegraph]
• The IIHF has decided to scrap any plans for the 2010-11 Champions Hockey League in Europe. [IIHF]
• Teemu Selanne(notes) is just two tallies away from the 600-goal mark for his career. [NHL.com]
• Jonathan Willis on the evolution of Anaheim Ducks' forward Ryan Getzlaf(notes). [Hockey or Die]
• Breaking down Nicklas Backstrom's(notes) worthiness for the Selke Trophy. [Japers' Rink]
• Finally, from gord93 via Twitter comes video of Neil Peart's version of "The Hockey Theme" available on Rock Band:
Categories: Uncategorized Tags:
This may absolutely shock you, but NESN Boston Bruins announcer Jack Edwards went a wee bit over the top in his reaction to Pittsburgh Penguins winger Matt Cooke's(notes) head-shot on Marc Savard(notes), which Darren Dreger of TSN reports may have ended Savard's season. (The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports that Cooke has "reached out" to Savard; wonder if they connected, with Savard being out to lunch and all.)
Hyperbole from the man who gave us maniacal on-air laughter at the expense of Flyers fans? Overstatement from the voice that compared a playoff victory for the Bruins over the Montreal Canadiens to the Revolutionary War, as in "234 years ago yesterday, a bunch of rag-tag farmers stood up against the greatest fighting force in the world?" We're sure you're in stunned disbelief.
On NESN.com, Edwards opined on the Cooke hit and lack of swift discipline from the NHL, opening with this prologue:
Soon after the United States of America won its independence -- to be free and equal among all nations -- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson paid an official visit to the Court of King George III. The king literally turned his back on them. Adams and Jefferson, having had their knowledge and notions of aristocratic mistreatment reaffirmed, were united in their hatred of the king and all his loyal subjects ever after. They were right then, and they are right now.
Any resemblance to events, people or places in the following work of fiction is purely coincidental.
Having established that metaphor as the bar, Edwards quickly clears it with a 1,500 word parable about, ahem, "Slidsy Cornsbie of the Porkburgh Pinkins" and his injury at the shoulder of a marginal NHL winger.
It could be the most compelling argument we've read for the abolishment of the caste system in NHL supplemental discipline, but it's more likely the most bat-poop cynical rant on the matter you'll have read in quite some time.
From the mind, and poison pen, of Jack Edwards. Remember that "Cornsbie" is Marc Savard, "Porkburgh" is Boston and Jack Edwards is swinging for the fences:
Cornsbie is examined by team doctors and found to have suffered a Grade 2 concussion. Not only will he be out of action, but the team won't even evaluate his condition for four to five days. It is a long-term injury, jeopardizing the team's season.
The senior league official enjoys the Florida sunset, not ruling on the status of the player who knocked Cornsbie unconscious. There is outrage in Porkburgh. "What is keeping the league from making up its mind on what so clearly was a felonious act?" fans wonder.
Porkburgh's organization seethes. The offending player has hidden behind the instigator rule for his entire career. He was suspended in 2004 for spearing. He was suspended in January of 2009 for what the senior league official described as "a deliberate check to the head area" of a player. He was suspended in November of the current season for what the league official described as a "result of a blow delivered to the head" of another opponent. Previous punishment obviously did not change the offending player's behavior. Previous punishment had the same effect as making a wayward son pay for his own gas to drive Dad's Lamborghini to the prom. Son got a speeding ticket on the way home. Dad told him not to do it again, again. The state police radar clocked the boy doing 91. Son said it felt like he was going 45.
Edwards closes with an "us against the world" thesis, based on the NHL's alleged lack of concern for Boston ... er, Porkburgh:
Porkburgh tried to take the high road for two years, but saw the league do little or nothing to defend its players. It saw one player nearly killed on the ice, another one having his face driven into the glass with five seconds left in a two-goal game, another cross-checked across the face in the closing minute of a playoff series -- only to have the senior league official take little or no action. And now this.
Justice delayed was so disrespectful as to be justice denied. It was arrogance they would never forget.
Aaaaannnnnd scene!
Read the whole opus for the full effect, but know this: No matter how crazy Edwards sells this, it's symbolic of the incredibly intense passion this "hits to the head" debate creates. It's the biggest hot-button issue in hockey, and battle lines are drawn and redrawn with every debate.
I had more than a few battles Monday: on the blog, on the radio, and especially on Twitter. To restate the thesis: I'm in favor of a (clearly defined) ban on blindside hits, getting the Cooke hit and the Richards hit (which I'll continue to defend) out of the game. Perhaps even as the first step to something larger.
I'm not in favor of banning all contact with the shoulder to the head on hits, because it would penalize what are essentially good hockey plays (Doug Weight's(notes) hit on Brandon Sutter(notes), close to the blindside but just a nasty open-ice hit) or the types of collisions that make hockey more entertaining for me (Ovechkin's hit on Jagr in Vancouver, which by the letter of the IIHF law was a head shot and should have been penalized).
I spoke with Keith Primeau when we were on TSN's Off The Record about the head shots issue as it relates to fighting, because I have a problem with fans or pundits screaming "protect the brains!" one minute and then having a winking endorsement of fists slamming against those brains the next. I find it an illogical stance, from a player safety standpoint.
Primeau said the difference was that a player doesn't ask to be hit to the head, but willfully accepts the risk in a fight. My argument is the player accepts risk by playing in the NHL, and that the League can only do so much to protect them in what is an inherently violent sport.
This belief, of course, puts me in League with Mike Milbury, which make me want to bathe in Listerine. But it's the way I enjoy the game, and hope to continue to. I think 99 percent of hockey arguments stem from that notion: What do we believe NHL hockey should look like, or should feel like? All of our experiences, as puckheads, are so divergent that it's no wonder these debates get protracted and, ultimately, quite heated.
Categories: Uncategorized Tags:
The goal cam on NHL broadcasts has given fans a goalie's-eye view of remarkable saves and thrilling offensive chances. On Monday night in D.C., it gave viewers on Versus something offbeat: The chance to see Marty Turco's(notes) amusing reaction to a stumbling Alex Semin shootout attempt in the Dallas Stars' 4-3 win at the Washington Capitals.
"He actually got the shot off, so it wasn't a complete train wreck," said Turco after the game. "In the shootout, you have to be ready for everything."
Like most teams that enter Verizon Center this season, the Stars may not have been ready for the Capitals' offensive barrage in the first two periods, when the home team posted 42 shots on goal and built a 2-0 lead. But Dallas rallied for three goals in the third and won in the shootout -- only the seventh time the Caps have lost at home this season.
"You can't put your finger on it, but it is about attitude and nothing else with this team," said Turco.
"But this team, not having strung together any streaks of wins together all season long, our attitude -- as well as we approach things or talk about it -- it's hard [to win]. You gotta have the right attitude."
The attitude now for Dallas: survival, in the Western Conference playoff push.
According to Mirtle's latest numbers-crunching, the Stars have to go 12-5-0 the rest of the way to make the Western Conference playoffs, as they sit 10th in the West with 70 points, four in back of the Detroit Red Wings.
The problem for Dallas: Their schedule the rest of the way is murderous, with seven games against the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks. That includes a four-game road swing from Nashville through California near the end of the month.
"We have an awful road trip. That makes it ultra tough. Like [a] 'you gotta get lucky' kind of tough," said Turco. "We don't really talk about it because it's so obvious. But it is gut-check time."
Does Monday's performance cement Turco as the goalie for that stretch run?
He laughed when asked, saying it wasn't his call and saying the usual rah-rah stuff about being a good practice player. But he was the difference in D.C. with a career-best 49 saves. It was a declarative performance by a veteran goalie in a tough place to play -- a statement game for Turco, so often (and frequently, fairly) maligned this season.
But more than what the win meant for him, Turco hoped it could spark his teammates as they head to Buffalo on Wednesday.
"I believe [this group] is good and smart enough to believe how big this win was, to come back like this against this team. To not only play against anybody, but win," he said.
"As crazy as this month is, this might be the win that gets us on a roll."
Categories: Uncategorized Tags:
