Live Game Blog: Boston-Montreal

BOS
11 Axelsson 37 Bergeron 73 Ryder
17 Lucic 91 Savard 81 Kessel
12 Kobasew 46 Krejci 26 Wheeler

33 Chara 44 Ward
34 Hnidy 45 Stuart
48 Hunwick 6 Wideman

MTL
17 Laraque 11 Koivu 13 Tanguay
21 Higgins 14 Plekanec 27 Kovalev
6 Kostopoulos 20 Lang 46 Kostitsyn
* Carbonneau has been playing around with his LW, putting Laraque on everytime Lucic is on... then after egging the young Bruin punk at the faceoff and afterwards, Big Georges goes to the bench for the winger set for that line

79 Markov 26 Gorges
44 Hamrlik 3 OByrne
51 Bouillon 71 Brisebois


End of 1st period (BOS 0-0 MTL):
I've written above a bit about the Laraque-Lucic thing. That has been the most exciting thing in this first period. Lucic smacked Komisarek in a fight last week and was showboating after the fight... and just a really annoying dude overall so Laraque wants to show him how fighting is done in the NHL. There is constant yapping and shoving before faceoffs and Laraque seems to be goading the young guy but he doesn't want to go (rightfully so, Lucic is a valuable player, way too valuable to lose for a goon). As usual, the crowd in Montreal is well aware of what is going on and boos every time Laraque invites him to a fight and he skates away.

Carey Price hasn't been very busy but he has made two awesome saves. I was quite critical of the young goaltender last year as from the little I saw, he had a very slow glove... but I was wrong and the kid is stepping up aand making crazy stops. He will be one of my highlighted players at the end of the game with an in-depth analysis of his play.

Stuart & Ward are the only guys over 7mins of ice for Boston... Why oh why are those two getting more ice than Chara & Wideman!!

The Habs coach is an equal opportunity guy giving pretty much the same ice time to everybody. Obyrne and Hamrlik are the only ones over 6mins.

End of 2nd period (BOS 1-1 MTL)
Lucic stayed classy and did not taunt the crowd or Habs after scoring the tying goal on a bad play from Bouillon who pressed the attack and left Kovalev as the defenseman... which simply will not work against a big boy like Lucic.

Boston is one hell of a hardworking group. They outplayed the Habs in this period on almost every shift. They play physical, they skate continuously, they backcheck perfectly yet always seem right there pushing back the dmen in the neutral zone as soon as they get control of the puck in their zone. Might just be the Canadiens playing crappy! Their passes are missing the mark, they get stuck in their zone forever and they cant get set up in the offensive zone.

3rd period 12:50 left (BOS 1-1 MTL)
The Habs might have trouble getting into the offensive zone but once they are set-up, it's a very sharp team with great movement, crisp passes and constantly threatening.

Tim Thomas might have crazy stats so far this year but the guy gets flustered so easily. Koivu leveled Wideman along the boards and he seemed to lose his cool. Suddenly, he wasn't standing up anymore, he kept going down while the Habs were mucking about behind the net, then hi tried a pokecheck from 10 miles away and almost lost his stick... I wouldn't feel comfortable with that goalie for the playoffs. If he gets flustered now, what will happened when things really get important and stressful?

3rd period 10:00 left (BOS 2-1 MTL)
Bad transition and backchecking again by the Canadiens leave tons of room for Krejci to get in the zone and find Hunwick who catches Price unprepared. It was a nice slapshot but Price was weak, with a huuuge opening 5-hole and his stick nowhere near to help. Nice stuff for the kid D just recalled to replace injured Andrew Ference.

3rd period 3:00 left (BOS 2-2 MTL)
Why haven't the Habs played like this for the last 57 minutes? They have been unstoppable in the last few minutes and it ended up with a great deflection from Kostopoulos to tie the game.

Why is Julien playing Savard and Ryder with less than a minute to go?? Those are the most irresponsible players defensively! Don't you at least want a point Claude?? Come on dude

End of OT (2-2)

Except for Hunwick almost scoring in his own goal, it was a nice buzzing OT but not that many real scoring chances.

Shootout!

Wheeler dekes like hell, misses the puck once and it slides in the goal
Kovalev stopped by a good low glove save
Kessel saved
Markov saved
Bergeron saved
Koivu can't lift the puck on a nice deke to the backhand and the Bruins win again

I was planning to analyze Carey Price's game tonight... but the Bruins had trouble reaching 25 shots on goal and there was little play inside the Habs defensive zone so I couldnt really watch him as much as needed. Who I did see lots of tonight was Plekanec. The guy was the best player for the Habs, constantly moving and controlling the puck, pushing into the zone then dishing out the puck. Markov ended up with 27:32 of ice time, the most by 3mins for the Habs.

For the Bruins, it was hard to think of who really stood out... Wheeler had nice moments, Krejci too... Ryder did some very nice things with the puck even though it didn't amount to much. He was dangerous with the puck and creates room for his linemates... but Zdeno Chara was really the best Bruin on the ice. 31mins of icetime, on the PK, on the power play, being such a presence, a calming influence on everybody else.

Live Game Blog: Vancouver - Pittsburgh

This should be a great matchup: Crosby, Malkin & cie vs Luongo and the line of Burrows, Kesler & Hansen. Sad Fleury is out but it will be a battle of Luongo vs his old bench warmer, Dany Sabourin. Also my first chance to really watch closely the revamped Penguins this year.... and what better than watching hockey at 11am on a Saturday!


Most Common lines
* things got changed as Hansen & Cooke were kicked out 30secs into the game

VAN
22 Sedin 33 Sedin 38 Demitra
14 Burrows 17 Kesler
18 Bernier 42 Wellwood 9 Pyatt
21 Raymond

8 Mitchell 55 OBrien
23 Edler 2 Ohlund
32 Nycholat 4 Davison


PIT
9 Dupuis 87 Crosby 81 Satan
25 Talbot 71 Malkin 17 Sykora
48 Kennedy 11 Staal 15 Zigomatis

44 Opik 58 Letang
43 Boucher 13 Goligoski
4 Scuderi 2 Gill

1st period 15:06 left (VAN 0-0 PIT)

- The Penguins powerplay looks so incredibly disorganized... but it's only appereance. It's a very good scheme as the PK unit doesn't really know how to set up. Interestingly enough, Malkin is the QB distributing the puck and not Crosby. He sets up high in the face off circle with 2 wingers near the goal.

Jesus! Luongo looks hurt. He stretched out on a shot and seems to have sprained his left leg. Like Dallas with Morrow, if this turns out long term, their season is over; no offense to Curtis Sanford.

End of 1st (VAN 1-0 PIT)

Demitra scored on a weird bouncy play with 2mins left in the period. It was a lucky bounce but Demitra showed great presence to follow the puck, sneak in behind the net and shoot it in before Sabourin comes across. It's been heavy going in that first period with lots (and lots) of penalties (60mins so far) and very good PK preventing any exciting PP play.

Ohlund & Mitchell lead the Canucks with 8mins of ice time while Crosby is the only Pen over 8mins (Letang & Malkin are next at 7:45)

End of 2nd (VAN 2-0 PIT)

Daniel Sedin moves around the defense and sneaks the puck past Sabourin early in the 2nd to double the lead... and that was pretty much it for excitement in this period. Sanford has played well replacing Luongo (no update on injury but they said he isn't coming back for this game)

I like the two young dmen for the Pens. Letang & Goligoski look like keepers to me. Both are very mobile (speed is not the main thing for a defenseman, they need to be quick on turns, good to change direction and great quick bursts of speed), have good offensive sense and play a simple puck possession defensive game.

3rd period (VAN 2-1 PIT)

Zigomanis scored 30secs in going 5-hole a few seconds after the power play ended. Let's see how the two teams will react with this 1 goal game and 19mins left.

End of game (VAN 3-1 PIT)

Demitra closes the deal in an empty net. The Sedin brothers participated on all 3 goals for the Canucks who end up a 6-day 4-game road trip with 3 wins and 1 shootout loss. They play one hell of a boring game when ahead. This 3rd period was unbearable to watch. Even with Crosby, Malkin & company going full out, there probably was only 2 or 3 good scoring chances. A continuous stream of stick swinging, physical defensive play, cutting off the boards... and then when the Canucks get the puck, they skate midice, dump it in and go back to the bench. Mitchell played most for Vancouver with 26:54, most of it against Crosby's line.

I've watched the Canucks play both the Rangers and Penguins this week... and if those two teams are among the class of the Eastern Conference, the Stanley Cup is staying out West this year. The Penguins were unable to generate any offense all afternoon. They like to move in along the boards and pass it up the middle when reaching the face off circle... but that play is very predictable and a good defensive team will simply not leave any space in the slot like that. You need to get the puck down low to stretch out their defense... then you will end with open space in the slot... but coming straight into the zone? that spot will be occupied with a good defensive team. Philippe Boucher ended up with 26:17 of ice time... about 5mins too much for a guy acquired this week and on a contending team. The Pens need to beef up that blueline!

The Sedin with Demitra were great but Willie Mitchell played an awesome game. Wellwood (11mins of icetime) and Mason Raymond (16mins) were invisible.

Hard to find someone who played that good for the Penguins! Zigomanis played a nice 3rd line game and he is a beast on faceoffs... but Letang was the best guy: he skated great, made some awesome passes opening up the neutral zone, broke a few plays with good stickwork and plays "his" game defensively ie he knows he won't win many physical battles so he keeps his feet and stick moving and wins the battles in the corners that way.

and the question of the day: Who is Jordan Staal? ... and the question for the Pens, what is he worth especially he doesn't seem interesting in resigning before becoming a restricted Free Agent this coming summer! The guy has some skills: he has a crazy long reach, good possession skills, has an easy stride which make him look very slow... but it looks more and more like his 29 goal rookie season was a fluke. There isn't that much there offensively. I think Kesler is a better player than Staal... but both are shutdown defensive players. I just think that Staal might have more value in a trade than what he actually brings on the ice.

This game wasn't too fun to watch, hopefully the early night game will be better? what to watch?? NYI-BUF, CHI-TOR, PHO-PHI, CBJ-ATL, BOS-MTL?

I think the choice is easy... you have to go for the battle of the NorthEast in Montreal! especially after the Bruins bitchslapped the Habs Thursday last week 6-1 in Boston! See you back at 4:30

Saves of the week 11/18 - too much details

10 – Ersberg vs Erat
Leg strength is essential for a goalie. Reflexes & positioning will give you the tools to make saves but a strong leg allows Ersberg here to move quickly across the crease and close down a wide open net before a good player can wrist it past. It was a very nice controlled slide across, maybe a bit too crouched down but still alert and with a ready glove. Of course if the Kings weren’t running like chickens with their heads cut off, Erat might have been covered and this a complete non-play.

9 – Lundqvist vs Zubrus
One of my biggest pet peeves: the panic grabbing some goalies once they lose their stick. Chill out dude! You’ve got pads, a blocker and your glove still on, you will make it out if you keep cool! Here, Lundqvist loses his stick, gets one from his dman but that’s not good enough and he tells the defenseman to go grab his stick in the corner…. The Devils of course are uncaring about poor lil Henrik without his stick and uses that time to go for the now defenseman-less goal. Lundqvist does however keep some of his cool, follows the puck, moves nicely and is in perfect position, the puck hitting his outstretched leg.

8 – Ersberg vs Barch
Avery might be a douchebag but he plays a good physical game. Incredible pass across the crease but Ersberg shows off his lateral movement by pushing off and cutting off a perfect one-timer.

7 – Deslauriers vs Callahan
Goalies have gotten back at this in recent years but we still see some goalies freezing when they underarm the puck like that: they think they have it and don’t want to move in case the puck falls off. Nevermind the puck falling if you aren’t sure where it is! If you have the puck, stand still… if you aren’t sure, move, look, check around, make sure you have it!, don’t stand there until a whistle blows… or the red light goes in.

6 – Mason vs Vanek
This is how you handle the league top scorer barring down at you on a breakaway! You follow him without flinching, letting him do the first move and commit… of course when the shooter commits, you need to have the athleticism and quickness to stick your leg in time and deny him!

5 – Turco vs ??? (if anyone knows that was, I couldn’t make out the jersey)
Spectacular play but the save wasn’t that great. The shooter shot it in the middle of the net instead of the whole empty half. Turco basically didn’t move or do anything. Sometimes that’s all you need to look like a great goalie

4 – Bryzgalov vs Modin
Lateral moves need to be controlled. This is not a slide with inertia stopping you. It has to be a muscle controlled move that ends with the goalie in his stance ready to make a save. This rule applies to all goalie except Dominik Hasek. Bryzgalov shows how to do that as the Jackets play tic-tac-toe across the crease. Great athleticism bringing about a great pad save.

3 – Ward vs Little
Forget Bryzgalov! Now this is a pad save! All reflex too: a strong push from side to side with the leg outstretched and the young Thrasher is denied

2 – Theodore vs Parise
A great desperation save by a confused goalie, laying down his paddle to cover at least some of the completely empty net.

1 – Budaj vs Sedin
Look at #8 from two weeks ago. This looks like a set play for the Canucks as they pass the puck so quickly all over. Budaj is quick as a cat here and there simply is no way that puck could have went in

Live Game Blog: Vancouver - New York Rangers

Most common lines
VAN
22 Sedin 33 Sedin 38 Demitra
14 Burrows 17 Kesler 42 Hansen
18 Bernier 4 2 Wellwood 9 Pyatt

8 Mitchell 6 Salo
55 OBrien 23 Edler
2 Ohlund 32 Nycholat
* Took me until the 2nd period to find out who was the 6th dman is for the Canucks. I dont think he has played at all in the 1st!

NYR

24 Callahan 23 Drury 91 Naslund
13 Zherdev 17 Dubinsky 34 Voros
20 Sjostrom ??? ???
* down by 3 goals early in the 2nd, things get muddled

6 Redden 5 Girardi
3 Rozsival 45 Kalinin
27 Mara 24 Staal

1st period 9:15 left
(vid 0:45) Wellwood completely dekes Lundqvist out of his skates on a breakaway to give VAN the lead.

Mason Raymond gets denied on another breakaway 30secs later... is the Rangers D too slow to keep up?

(vid 1:01) Shorthanded breakaway... This should never happen. Burrows slaps it home stick side. Once again, the Rangers defense can't keep up.

End of the 1st period (VAN 2-0 NYR)
That line of Burrows, Kesler and Hansen is buzzing around like crazy and noone seems able to stop them... maybe be better to wait until they lose the puck on their own than attempt to chase them!

Wellwood might be great offensively but he makes bonehead moves in his own zone... and I don't mean bad bounce or losing the puck on the other guy's strong effort, I just mean stupid slow passes down the middle.

Luongo has been strong in the first. The Rangers shoots often and from lots of different angles, very quick release that surprises the goalie and tests their reflexes and preparedness.

2nd period 16:30 left (VAN 4-1 NYR)

Hold on here! I can't keep up! The Rangers keep losing the battles in their own zones and the Canucks keep passing it in front and slamming it in the back of the net! First, Burrows from Hansen then Johnson on a very similar play.

(vid 2:16) Drury shows why he was named captain. He carries the puck from the blue line, skates around a slow moving dman and dekes Luongo to bring a semblance of competiveness into the game

2nd period 13:00 left (VAN 5-1 NYR)

I guess the rest of the Rangers aren't too much into it! They take two penalties in a row for a long 5 on 3. The Canucks are using an extremely wide pentagon for the 5-on-3 with both wingers along the goal line. They pass it around and the dmen slowly move in to close things down.

A long review on a puck trickling in (vid 2:40) comes out no goal but the Canucks scores a few seconds later... and then Lundqvist just bolts out of the goal for the bench! I don't know if that was planned... It didnt look like it, just look like King Henrik had enough and decided to let Valiquette handle the rest of that 5-on-3 and a 5-1 losing proposition... gotta watch that GAA!

End of the 2nd (VAN 5-2 NYR)

The Rangers scored on a broken play and gave a much better effort at the end of the period. We will see how the Canucks react as I am sure the Rangers will come out strong.

3rd period 4:00 left (VAN 5-3 NYR)

Do you wanna bet Shane O'Brien isn't playing the next game? He just took his 5th minor penalty of the game, none of them "good" penalties. The kid seems to panic and grab when he gets beaten. The Canucks killing this penalty with 2mins left afterwards will seal the deal.

End of the 3rd (VAN 6-3 NYR)

Overall, the Canucks play a very good possession game, relentless pursuit and everybody backchecking. It's a team that works hard and has some good speed with Mason Raymond, Kesler, Burrows and the Sedins who look slow but somehow get around faster than their pursuers. The defense is adequate only. Ohlund & Salo are overrated and can be easily pushed around defensively. Of course, with Luongo in goal, anybody would look good.

The Rangers did not look like a contender tonight. With Gomez out, it became apparent that this team needs to have 3 good lines rolling offensively to have a chance. Their defense looks awful, especially Redden and Rozsival.

Burrows was the best player on the ice and pesky Ryan Callahan one of the rare bright spots for the blueshirts.

Blog Bat Around: an overwhelmed card collector

Gellman at the Sports Cards Uncensored blog has floated around a very cool idea of sharing topics to get the numerous sports card bloggers closer together. Let me share in on his first topic: what type of card collector are you?

My story is nothing special. Like most, I collected in my youth in the 80s but grew out of it and my moving on happened pretty much as the industry was changing in the early 90s. I remember collecting the first year or so of Upper Deck but that was pretty much my cutoff.

Trying to get back in the last few years has been completely overwhelming. So many different products! Hobby & retail boxes, Price points all over the place, concepts like Rookie edition or hot prospects actually filled with veterans, Legendary cuts filled with cards of Marcus Thames & Ramon Vasquez, a product like SP Authentic selling for $2.99 a pack at Wal-Mart and not really having much of Short Prints (isn’t that what SP means???) or Authenticity (unless a fake background counts as authentic).

So what is a guy to do? Ask the hobby shop dude? When I actually reached above the clerks who knew nothing and the manager and I had a chat, all he wanted was to push high-end products. What about going back to the bible of old times for advice? Needless to say Beckett was useless. Blogs and vids were a bit better but it takes time to find the good ones among all the crappy ones out there… and then you could probably find a blog praising any product if you look long enough.

… So without being much more informed, I decided to jump and bust a couple of wax. The hobby box of SP Authentic baseball was okay… The auto was okay… the signed letterman of Huston Street was very sweet… was sweet to get a K for a pitcher even though it’s not part of his name… but the base set looks awful and those authentic speed & authentic power subsets are just lame and stupid. Wow Iguchi had 11 stolen bases last year! … this is totally making me forget about the 130 SB record breaker card from Rickey Henderson! What a card!

The retail box of NHL O-Pee-Chee was pretty much as expected. OPC was what I collected as a kid so I thought I would go back to it… but that set was just a low-end set with no tie-in to the old OPC except the name (though this year seems much more retro and nostalgia oriented). One no name jersey card as the only insert… but with a 700 card set, I wasn’t expecting so many duplicates and I doubt I ended up even 1/5 of the way through the set. No way I was gonna bust another 3-4 boxes to even reach a manageable number to start looking for singles.

Hey, maybe busting wax isn’t my thing with “modern” products… so I dabbled into player singles. Got a sweet Vince Young two color swatch (and I keep looking for that straight jacket swatch from this year product or that draft bust manufactured logo patch!), added a few Sedin twins autos to my collection, got seriously outbid on some Luongo auto patches, got the two coolest autograph cards I could afford from Russell Martin to be part of the display with my signed ball… but the real awesome cards are quite expensive for my means and I somehow felt that my money was badly spent looking at the few insert cards making my collection… pretty damn weak collection for what I paid! I should have more than a few cards.

I stopped buying last year after that, still keeping up online and brooding until I could find exactly what I wanted and which product would really satisfy me… but there are still a bunch of unanswered questions on my mind: how to get re-acquainted with the hobby, how to find out what product is good for my taste and my budget, how to avoid the pitfalls of fake patches, meaningless grading services, the irrelevance of Beckett and the world of innumerable parallels.

Masterpieces looks awesome, has a cool concept and with a small base set, it might be the way to go but I feel completely overwhelmed by all that is out there …

Anyways, that’s the view from the booth of the overwhelmed collector… or maybe I’m just the confused old timer noob collector…

Live game blog: Chicago - Phoenix

Most common lines
CHI
32 Veersteeg 19 Toews 88 Kane
22 Brouwer 10 Sharp 24 Havlat
33 Byfuglien 36 Bolland 37 Burish

7 Seabrook 2 Keith
25 Barker 51 Campbell
8 Walker 23 Johnson

PHO
91 Turris 28 Reinprecht 19 Doan
13 Carcillo 12 Jokinen 88 Mueller
89 Boedker 11 Hanzal 23 Porter

4 Michalek 55 Jovo
3 Yandle 2 Klee
53 Morris 44 Sauer


First period (CHI 2-0 PHO):
What is Gretz doing? The Yotes are a freaking mess. It's only one period but they have been playing extremely crappy so far tonight. They are constantly struggling to get the puck out, more than half the time their zone entry play fails and their positioning in the neutral zone is awful. Things are not that better once they get set up in the offensive zone. They seem enamoured of that long cross pass in the middle of the defensive box... which can be a good play sometimes but not all the time! and especially not when the winger is so high that there is no possible shot (well, no dangerous shot)... it just becomes a way to move the defensive box around and relieve the pressure on the puck carrier. It's a cop out for weak players who can't make plays.

Which is really weird as Phoenix has a completely different mindset in two other aspects of the game: 1- lack of dumping: I think there was one play setting dumping of the puck deep in the zone... Even though it is boring compared to a player deking at the blue line, dump and chase is a very good way to get both the puck and all players deep in the zone and set up for a good opportunity (if you have the speed and guts to get the puck before the dmen of course). And two, while transitioning, the players are holding on to the puck a long time, letting their pursuer get closer and therefore giving more space for the other players... but either because of their lack of skill or because they hold on so long, they do not manage to get rid of the puck effectively: it either gets deflected by the pursuer or the play is so telegraphed that it gets intercepted (or quickly dismantled anyways)

Jovonovski showed off all he has to show in that one period: hail mary passes so hard & long, they have no chance of getting caught then boneheaded hit attempts instead of playing dman... then getting injured with nobody touching him (0:29 of the vid). The dude is so incredibly overated.

Update 2nd period (CHI 2-1 PHO)
Jokinen decided he had enough with one minute left in the 2nd and dropped the gloves with 4th liner Colin Fraser (vid 2:55). The big Finn totally initated that fight and it ended up being more of a wrestling bout. A weird move at a time that will not really pump his team. Jokinen was billed as that awesome player lost on an awful team in Florida... but I don't see that at all. He has size and some puck possession skills but his defensive game is awful because he always takes himself out of position by going for useless bodychecks. His offensive game also seems to lack polish and I think the fact the coach puts him with Carcillo shows he might be better equipped to be an offensively gifted sparkplug and agitator than a first line guy.

2nd period was better for Phoenix as they started to skate down the wings instead of meddle around at the blue line and forced Chicago to stretch out their defense... but the Hawks are still playing better and only the great play of Bryzgalov is keeping this game tight. I need to watch some more of him but I must say the Coyotes goalie is impressive, both with his positioning and his quick legs. He pushes very strongly and so many pucks just hit him in the chest or upper pads... Khabibulin has been okay, nothing more.

mid 3rd period (CHI 2-2 PHO)
Who the hell is that Veersteg guy! Always well positioned, strong in front of the net and getting the puck behind the net, the guy looks to have a bright future doing the dirty work alongside Toews, Kane & Sharp. He just hit the post on a great play (vid 3:11): playing the screen perfectly, the rebound goes wide side and Veersteg jumps, sprawls and spreads all the way and slaps the puck perfectly towards the empty net but it hits the post straight on.

Shane Doan ties the score with an awesome shot from the point on the PP (vid 3:40). You could feel him awaken in the last few minutes, he was hitting everything in sight and taking charge of things down low. When a guy like Doan, Brendan Morrow or Iginla gets going like that, there is very little you can do. Those power forwards are nasty and pump up the whole team. Let's see now if the Coyotes have what it takes to close the deal: they have some strong momentum right now.

End 3rd period (2-2)
Patrick Sharp is another talented guy. He has good wheels and seems to have the skills to hang on with Kane, Havlat and Toews. He puts the puck in the net but more than that, he seems very sharp (what a pun!) defensively. He just made an awesome play coming off the bench as the Coyotes rushed up ice. He threw himself down and his stick deflected a nice pass to the point that would have been dangerous as 3 players were near the net for deflections or rebounds.

Except for some nice buzzing down low in the last minute by Boedker, Hanzal & Porter, it was a pretty uneventful last 10mins. 4 on 4 sudden death should be interesting... I wanna see how Sharp & Toews use their speed and who Gretzky will send in... and how Jokinen will look with more space to display his "talent".


Overtime!
What the hell did I just say!!! Jovonovski can't control his stick and gets a penalty for stick in the face in OT. I told you the guy is dumb as a rock. 1:18 of 4 on 3... not much happened before that. I didn't really have time to see anybody's play.


The Hawks sends in Toews, Kane, Campbell & Barker initially then Sharp comes in for Barker with Toews moving to the point.

The Coyotes put in Michalek, Sauer and 19 year old youngster Hanzal! Pretty big vote of confidence from Gretz.

Nothing much happened... basically just shots from the point but the Yotes have a very tightbox and nobody is in front for the Hawks (you can view a few secs of it at 4:18 of the vid). A shootout will clear out the winners from the losers.

(4:28 to the end of the vid)
Toews scores on a weak play by Bryz where the puck hit his paddle but trickles through.
Turris saved on a stick side save
Sharp wrists it past the goalie, no big fake. Bryzgalov not looking good on this either.
Mueller stopped by a big trapper save.

The better team won: Chicago 3-2. Patrick Sharp was the best player on the ice... Shane Doan had a great 3rd period but that's not good enough.

Overall, the Blackhawks are developing into a very nice team. Toews, Kane, Sharp, Veersteg are good offensive guys and they have a very good energy line with Byfuglien & Burish. The defense group is looking good too with Keith, Seabrook & Barker on top of Campbell. They are quick on their feet and play hard. A very good nucleus to build around.

The Coyotes have some nice pieces up front too with Hanzal, Mueller and Boedker. Bodker especially seems to be a keeper. He is so incredibly fast and is a masters at going around the net and finding a hole to pass the puck through. I am not sold on Turris. He was pretty much invisible last night, his skating is nothing special and he does not ahve any special handling skills to seperate him from the pack. Apart from Michalek, the defense group is mediocre and should be rebuilt.

BuhBye Barry

Why is this such a surprise? Barry Melrose should never have been hired in the first place. He pretty much said exactly that in his recent interviews by saying he could not motivate this new generation of players.

It's not like he had a team of rookies looking for direction and a pep talk after every shift! Lecavalier, St Louis, Prospal, Roberts, Recchi, Gratton... This is a nice group of veterans to work with. Is motivation really what is missing with those guys?? Wouldn't it be a system that works? a coach that spends the time studying his opponents' schemes, find the right matchups and gets his team the tools and preparation they need to win night in and night out.

I do not have inside information here but it looks to me like Melrose did not put in the time needed to getback in a game he left more than a decade ago. Things have changed and the TV star couldn't adapt: Talking a nice rap (basically all you need to do sports TV) will not go well with professional athletes. Don't you think the Lightning's players wont see through the empty words of that guy??? I would tune him out pretty damn quickly.

And don't even get me started about 1993! The one real accomplishment on melrose's resume... Did he really do that great of a job in 1993? Wasn’t he really assistant coach to player/coach Gretzky? And let’s not forget the makeup of that team: Kurri, Robitaille, Granato, Sandstrom, Dave Taylor, Tim Watters, Huddy, McSorley, Mark Hardy…. This is no talentless group of youngsters that had to be picked up and carried through. This is a veteran core that probably allowed the coach to take it easy a bunch of days.

Melrose is a chump.