Don Waddell asked to accept a lateral transfer — Bristol
Wow, somebody in Atlanta Spirit’s brain trust has (apparently) finally pulled his/her head out and realized that they need a GM with a clue for the Thrashers.
Of course, this being Atlanta I’m sure there’s going to be some kind of strange-ass soap opera surrounding all of this (and the hiring of the new GM).
Also, Versus was kind enough to release their Conference Finals schedule:
Set your DVRs.
I know, the World Championships are like the NIT of hockey–if you don’t make the playoffs or your team gets bounced, you play for your country in the World Championships with guys from your homeland that didn’t make it into (or are retired from) the NHL.
Niclas Wallin suspended two games at the World Championships for nasty hit — IIHF
The picture with the article tells the story–Nicky Wallin left his feet and just NAILED Switzerland’s Roman Wick against the glass. Wick was left with a concussion and had amnesia for ten minutes afterward–if he plays before the SEHL starts play again in the fall, I will be surprised.
I like a hard hit and Nicky can deliver on that, but that was just overkill right there. He totally deserved that suspension for being an idiot, and he should consider himself lucky that he wasn’t expelled from the tournament entirely.
Hope Wick will be OK.
OK, so 99.9 The Fan is the Hurricanes’ flagship station. Their hosts usually have it together–Mike Maniscalco, for one. I love the man, even though he’s from Buffalo and (nominally) a Slugfan. Knows his hockey, loves to talk his hockey, and gives some pretty spectacular interviews.
HOWEVER: Mark Thomas, their afternoon drivetime co-host? He needs to learn something about hockey if he wants me to take him seriously–either that or he needs to just admit that he knows dick-all about the Sport of the Gods and is unwilling to learn anything about the Sport of the Gods so that I can just tune him out when he starts flappin’ his yap about the Sport of the Gods.
FOR EXAMPLE:
Today Mark was interviewing Matt Gellatly, the Raleigh boy who just got drafted to Saginaw of the OHL. Among other things, Mark asked the kid about (and I quote) “lighting it up”. G-dude asked him what he meant by “lighting it up”, and Mark’s response made it clear that he was asking if the kid fights or pounds people–and he did an asstacular job of trying to cover himself on it.
WTF?
It’s the JUNIORS, you meathead–the players don’t fight in Juniors these days unless they want a suspension! If you want to fight, you go to Derek Boogaard’s summer camp or something. You don’t go to juniors. And then asking him if he “lit it up” in the RYHA–meaning the same thing? Err….yeah.
I mean, really. Even 850 the Buzz has their shit together and the hosts tend to be fairly up-front about not knowing hockey as well as, say, any fan not named Mike in Cary–but 99.9? They’re the freakin’ flagship station. Their hosts should really have it more together so’s not to embarrass the team whose games they carry.
Maurice fired along with sidekick Ladouceur – TSN
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Like I said months ago, I tried to warn the Leafs fans–I did, I really did. And all they did was laugh at me and bray about how I CLEARLY don’t know anything about hockey because otherwise I’d see what a great coach Paul Maurice is and how he’d make the Leafs great again.
Who’s laughing now, kids?
He’s a decent coach…in the AHL. Nice guy, too–but as an NHL coach I really don’t think he’s up to snuff. Coaches have to be developed too, just like players, and Mo’s development as a coach was severely hampered by his being thrown right into the fire all those years ago in Hartford after a whopping six weeks and change as an assistant coach under Paul Holmgren (who now GMs the Pflyers). If he wants to salvage any kind of career at all, he needs to go back to the AHL or just be an assistant somewhere for a few years and learn how to do more than the same old crap he did for 8 years in Carolina and 2 years in Toronto.
I’m just sayin’.
Today is Primary Day in North Carolina, and voters are heading to the polls to pick who they want to be their party’s nominee for this November’s Presidential election.
Miz Mer, however, is so very (understandably) cheesed off by all the robocalls that she’s received in the last month that she’s chosing to stay home today. I don’t totally agree with her decision, and I feel that there are possibly better ways to complain about robocalling (which, as far as I’m concerned, is a blight on the landscape much like inbound telemarketing calls and spam), but I respect her decision and support her in it…which, sadly, is more than can be said for one of my fellow Obama supporters–who decided to self-righteously lecture her about her civic duty (and got all kinds of butthurt when he got a hammer ‘twixt the peepers from yours truly).
So…yeah. I encourage you to please go exercise your vital powers as a citizen and vote today (and, more importantly, in November), if you’re eligible to. If you decide not to, I’ll be disappointed, but I’ll respect it.
/soapbox
Raleigh Native Selected In OHL Draft — ch.com
This is very very cool. Yeah, it was the 15th round. But still–it’s progress and a feather in the cap of the Raleigh Youth Hockey Association.
Go Matt Go!
Bret of the Gimpy Hip appeared on NHL Live yesterday (show is linked here–it’s the April 29th show, Hedi appears at the 19-minute mark).
The things that were discussed (in some sort of order):
1) DWTS – Bret talked about how proud he is of Kristi and how she’s doing and how her background as an athlete has prepared her for the show. He’s trying to enjoy it and have fun, which is cool. Also said that they should find a hockey player to be on the show (my vote goes to Jeremy Roenick–he’s such a media-whore and a showman that I think he’d actually do pretty well).
2) The end of the season and playoffs — Bret talked about how much of a bummer it was to miss after the late-season rally (especially given how Ottawa took that huge nosedive), he sang the praises of Peter Laviolette’s insistence on accountability and his refusal to make or accept excuses, and made special mention (I thought) of how Lavi rallied the troops after the Warchief fell in combat. Among other things, he said (and I quote) “Peter did a great job right down the stretch of making everyone accountable for their job, and consequently we were winning games.” (If JimR fires Lavi that will cause way way way more problems for the team than it would solve. — my personal opinion)
2) 1994 and 2006, trying to repeat as Champs – he talked about playing at the Garden, talked about the 1994 Canucks team, and tied it in to 2006 and how he understood how the Oilers felt after that game because he’d been there before. He also talked about how banged up he was after 2006, and how hard it is to repeat because the long season and long playoffs are so physically and mentally draining.
3) The Southeast — I quote: “Hey, YOU try playing Ovechkin every night! You play against him eight nights a year!” Bret’s commentary about the Southeast boiled down to him saying that the people that call the Southeast “weak” are full of shit and that they’re way more competitive than people would think (personally, I think that if the rest of the Central gets its act together that Division will wind up becoming the new Southeast). I quote also: “The Southeast Division is not no slouch division.(sic)” (I winced at the grammar issues.)
4) Miscellany — gushed about his kids, talked about DWTS a little bit more, and general chitchat about the playoffs. Also did not say whether or not he’d retire, though personally I think he should.
Great Leader to take more of a hand in day-to-day running of Hurricanes — N&O
I see nothing good coming of this, to be honest. What’s he going to do, get a team of “advisors” together to tell him how he should run the team?
Actually, that’s a little unfair–unlike Richard Gordon, the Great Leader does know something about hockey, so I don’t think that he’ll be getting tennis players and futbol stars around him to help him run the team into the ground. But this whole thing just has a strong (indeed, distressing) air of Bad Craziness. Not a move (sorry to disappoint you, the 13th of April Movement), but definitely problems.
Every time that Pete Karmanos has meddled (and to me, it’s meddling when an owner gets involved in day-to-day ops like this) in the affairs of the Hurricanes, it has either not gone well OR a bad and distracting situation has just been dragged out even longer than it needed to be (see “Holdout: Primeau, Keith”) because of the man’s tendency to let his temper get the better of him and his equally upsetting (to me) tendency to run his mouth without regard for the wisdom (or lack thereof) of such things. I forsee little if any good coming of this, and that does not make me a happy camper at all. If he were more an easygoing big-picture Ted Leonsis kinda guy, then I wouldn’t have a problem. But PK? Umm…no.
Colour me the Loyal Opposition…of course, when have I ever pretended to be anything but?
In other news:
Jim Rutherford was named to the NHL’s new goaltender equipment working group, along with fellow GMs Doug Risebrough, Garth Snow, and (of ALL people) Brett Hull.
I can’t be the only one that sees the double-shot of irony in this. I mean, really.
So this morning I pull up the N&O to see if Luke’s come back from his vacation with anything new.
OK, I can see Glen Wesley coming back. But Bret of the Gimpy Hip? WHY, for the love of Tyr, is he even mentioned? Dude needs to RETIRE.
As we no doubt have already heard, the Warchief skated with the Hurricanes who were picked for their respective national teams for the World Championships in Quebec City–he’ll be back in time for next season, which is a plus.
Also: Luke comments in Lord Stanley’s Blog about the kick-ass job Versus is doing covering the playoffs–and they are doing a very good job (but Brian Engblom has got to get a new hairdo–the mullet is starting to look rather like a headcrab). Normally I take shots at Versus for the way they cover the NHL, but they’re doing a good job this season.
Now, if only Versus was more widely carried and didn’t show the same 5 or 6 teams over and over again during the regular season….
OK, so.
OK, let me see if I have this right:
Canadiens fans boo another country’s anthem before home games in the playoffs–and have to be told by the PA dude not to do so.
They torch police cars, loot stores, and cause general mayhem after winning the first freaking round.
One of them chucks a beer into the penalty box, to cheers from his seatmates (and nothing was done by Bell Centre staff, from what I saw–except of course to clean the glass off after the game).
Six years ago, several of them tossed ‘nanners and sling racial slurs at a black player after an OT win during the second round–and the rest of that lot claimed that it was really the opposing team’s fans in disguise, just trying to make the Canadiens look bad.
And then of course we have Jack Todd. I’ll stop myself before I go off on that jackass again.
And they have the nerve to call us rednecks?
WE didn’t riot after winning the first round. We didn’t even riot after winning the Finals in 2006. The ONE time I heard some asshat in the stands refer to a black player with a racist epithet, everyone sitting around him threatened to throw the toolbag over the glass so he could call the player that again to his face–and when toolbag demurred, he was told to STFU and stop embarrassing all the rest of us.
I’m sure some Habs troll will show up and say “I won’t be back, but I wanted to say GO HABS and we are more passionate than you are because we do all these things”, but you know what? Fuck y’all in your ears. I’d rather be classy than “passionate”, if “passionate” means “being on a level with the drunken thugs that invaded the RBC during the 2006 ECF.”
I was cheering for the 10-megaton surface burst in this series (because I have no love for Montreal or Philly), but I may have to rethink my position.
Actually…no. I’m still barracking for the 10MT surface burst.
And the Rangers take on the Pens (and the Sharks throw down with the Stars) in their respective Game 1s tonight. Give ‘em Hell, Harry.
Let me keep this short and sweet:
1) Christobal Huet is not the answer for the Caps. He got pwned on that dribbler of a first Pflyers goal, and he got pwned on the series-winner in the exact same way that Cory Stillman pwned him in 2006.
2) I liked how Ovechkin and Kolzig stayed out to applaud the fans after the handshakes–I didn’t, however, like how the fans just kept their hands in their pockets. C’mon kids, your team went from dead last at Thanksgiving to the third seed in the East, they battled back from being down 3-1….and you can’t even give ‘em a little love?
3) Better luck next year. Except, of course, against the Hurricanes.
On to Round 2. Give ‘em Hell, Harry.
…I’ll be planted in front of the t00b watching the Habs (who SUCK…just sayin’) take on the Bruins in a Game Seven. Why? Because it’s a Game Seven, and because I want to see the Habs fans’ heads implode if Carey Price can’t steal the game. Either way, it will be a barn-burner.
And I’ll be checking on the score of the Capitals game, to see if they manage to take their series to a seventh game or if they choke it like a chicken (which is what I think will happen).
I suspect that if the Caps pull it out tonight, that moronic little twerp capsfan88 will be back like a bad yeast infection to try trolling it up again.
Meanwhile, over in the Western Conference, everything that has happened before will happen again. And that’s all I’m saying about that.
Yeah, so I watched regulation and half of the first OT in last night’s Caps-Flyers game.
The Caps, barring a miracle, are toast. Pahtoleipä. Труп. Erledigt. You get the picture.
The problem the Caps had last night is best summed up in the following video:
Not penalties per se–but sloppy penalties.
Now, I will freely admit that the penalty that Kimmo Timonen drew on Kozlov in the third was (as Ed Olczyk put it) a wrong call, and the interference call on Eminger in the first was iffy–but That Hasenfratz Putz was working the game, so I expected at least one or two blown calls. But the rest were just sloppiness on the part of the Caps. Two Too Many Men penalties are possibly the most glaring sign of a lack of cohesion on the Capitals’ bench right now. The Caps are in complete disarray right now, Huet is once again showing that he’s not really playoff material, and I expect the Pflyers to close them out on Saturday.
Memo to occasional (not to mention unintelligent and uncreative) troller capsfan88:
Yes, playoffs are fun–but actually winning a series? That’s even more fun.
Just sayin’.
Caps-Flyers tonight at 7 on Versus, followed by Falmes/Sharks at 10 with Hockey Central sandwiched in between–hopefully they get Manny Legace in studio rather than Rick DiPietro (who, though handsome, has all the personality of wallpaper paste).
TSN will be covering Avs/Wild Game 5 and Ducks/Stars Game 4–damn shame I don’t have Centre Ice. 
Samsonov signed for three years: ch.com
This is certainly an interesting deal. Sammy had a bit of a resurgence here after having issues in Montreal, Edmonton, and Chicago, but (to steal a quote from the Good Doctor) how long can he maintain? Honestly, how long can we expect the man to rack the points up? He’s always been a mite on the streaky side, and I’m seriously thinking that if he gets on a schneid the fans will start screaming for him to be shipped out in the back of a pig truck.
We’ll see. I just hope that neither party in this agreement winds up regretting it.
Tonight I’ll be cleaning my kitchen while the Rangers game is on in the living room. Maybe I’ll get lucky and the Serene Master will get to don the battlegear (and hopefully not have a brainfart or two).
For those who have been living under a rock, here’s the videotape:
If you don’t want to watch the video: Sean Avery decided to camp in front of Martin Brodeur–FACING the guy, with his back to the play, and do this psychotic little dance in an attempt to screen Brodeur while the Rangers were on a 5-on-3.
It, like the Babylon Project, failed. Chris Drury even had to skate up to him during the freaking play and tell him “STICK DOWN”–and when your captain does the equivalent of tell you “You’re doing it wrong”, that is saying something.
So on Monday, the NHL issued the following statement:
NEW YORK/TORONTO (April 14, 2008) — National Hockey League Senior Executive Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell today issued the following advisory on the interpretation of Rule 75 - Unsportsmanlike Conduct: “An unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty (Rule 75) will be interpreted and applied, effective immediately, to a situation when an offensive player positions himself facing the opposition goaltender and engages in actions such as waving his arms or stick in front of the goaltender’s face, for the purpose of improperly interfering with and/or distracting the goaltender as opposed to positioning himself to try to make a play.”
Predictably, a vocal handful of Rangers fans are crying that the League made this announcement specifically to protect Martin Brodeur (or as one fuckhead on X Random Messageboard calls him, “Brodiva”).
My comment to that, of course, is: Bullshit.
What Avery did went way beyond creative. It went to clear to the “what the fucking fuck were you thinking, you stupid fucking fuckhead?” end of the spectrum. I mean, really. There is a point where you have to admit that something a member of your team did is indefensible, and that point was reached Sunday night with Sean Avery’s egregiously fuckheaded display of unmitigated fucktardery.
Damn, think I dropped enough variations on the F-bomb there?
Anyway. My point remains: Rangers fans can spin this any way they want to. They can cry and whine and hop on the martyr bus all day if they want to. I don’t care. Avery’s little shenanigans on Sunday have zero place in the game, they go way beyond agitation, and when even Don Cherry (who normally loves you) calls you a “jerk”?
That is saying something right there. Maybe my boy Malik will beat his dumb ass down in practice again. I’d love to see that.
Let’s go to the videotape:
As we see here, Patrick Thoresen took a slapshot to the neuticles and collapsed in obvious pain. The contortion of his face suggests that he was also making unpleasant noises indicative of being in a great deal of pain.
There should have been a whistle, but there wasn’t for reasons that aren’t important right now, and the Capitals scored on the play.
The non-whistle doesn’t bother me so much–it was a discretionary call, and the officials didn’t, from what I see, notice what had happened. What bothers me was the veiled assertion by Bristol North mediot Glen Healy that Thoresen had taken a dive–an assertion that he reiterated after the goal was scored when the poor bastard was being helped to the bench, still doubled over.
Did Healy know at the time that Patrick Thoresen may wind up losing his left nut? No. But not knowing the severity of a guy’s injury does NOT, in my humble opinion, give one a free pass to make a stupid comment like “they better be doing leg surgery on him” and then follow it up with more excoriation while the poor bastard is STILL doubled over and barely able to make it to the locker room without assistance from two teammates and the trainers. You don’t go down like that and STAY DOWN if you are not having a serious issue. Not even a gutless diving puke like Darcy Tucker is stupid enough to pull that stunt.
Of course, this is the same asshat that cried and whined on the air over my boy’s epic shootout goal back in 05-06, so I guess something like this should come as no surprise.
Fuck you, Glen Healy. Fuck you right in your ear.
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