Archive for April, 2007

Christy has posted some photos of the Red Wings second game against the Sharks.

Canucks and Beyond details Game #3 versus Anaheim…great picture as well!

Michal Rozsival’s goal at 16:43 of double overtime sent the New York faithful home ecstatic and the Rangers to a 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinal Sunday. (P.S. - If you have proof that you picked Rozsival to score the OT winner, I’ll eat my shirt!)

Puck Update has some thoughts on Larry Brooks.

His Sunday column was all about how the NHL Competition Committee is considering changing the playoff overtime format. Acknowledging playoff overtimes don’t always highlight the greatest hockey, they’re thinking about something like one five-on-five twenty minute overtime that would then change to four-on-four, with the idea the four-on-four is more fun to watch and more likely to lead to scoring.

Canada’s Shea Weber was suspended Sunday for three matches at the Hockey World Championships for hitting German forward Yannic Seidenberg in the head a day earlier.

Wisconsin freshman-to-be Kyle Turris has turned heads in the last few months, enough so that the NHL Central Scouting Bureau (CSB) ranked him number one among North American forwards and defensemen eligible for this summer’s NHL Entry Draft.

I have previously mentioned a Bobby Orr tribute video on NHL Digest that I thought was rather fitting and a great view of the awesome career of possibly the best player to play the game.

However, if you are looking for a great written biography of Bobby Orr on the web, I would suggest that you look no further than Joe Pelletier’s legends of hockey site. Joe has a great piece on the career of Bobby Orr…summed up as the perfect hockey player.

Here is just a snippet of what Joe had to say:

Orr was the sport’s most dominant player, arguably its perfect player, and he did from the blue line. By doing so Orr revolutionized the game of hockey. His slick passing and playmaking and his end to end rushes were unheard of by a defenseman. Only the very very best forwards would try a solo effort. Orr did it seemingly effortlessly, and so convincingly, therefore forever changing the hockey landscape.

I highly encourage you to read the rest of Joe’s Bobby Orr Biography.

I just thought I should jot down a few observations that I had after watching Game 2 of the Red Wings versus Sharks series.

1.) Hasek started out shaky, but came on strong at the end of the game.  This is despite the fact that the Sharks couldn’t manage a shot in the second period until almost half way through the stanza.

2.) Pavel Datsyuk is unbelieveable and deserves any accolades that he gets.  He just kept getting stronger as the game went on and eventually tallied the game winner.  This is the type of leader that makes sure you don’t go back to the other team’s rink down 2-0 in the series!

3.) I am still picking the Sharks to win this series. Thornton and Cheechoo are excellent, but they are going to have to have some stellar play from Craig Rivet and their group of blueliners to make sure that they maintain any leads that they get.

4.) In other notes, I noticed that Dan Cleary is now wearing the Vapor XXXX Skates.

It has been a while since I posted a skate review and I have been getting a lot of requests to take a look at the Graf Ultra G70 model.

The Graf G70 has been likened to the new Bauer Vapor XXXX as far as a top-end skate goes, but that is where the similarity ends. Graf tends to be recognized as one of the most comfortable skates on the market, but has had problems with their suspect customer service in the past.

The new Graf G70 is a very attractive and, by all accounts, very comfortable skate that performs well for most players. Graf is very excited about their XP-3 Technology that consists of:

Ultra light composite upper material XP-3 combines high protection and durability. The Air-Net liner offers high comfort and short drying out. The new tongue distinguish oneself by anatomical fit and high protection. Comfortable anatomical footbed. Professional Outfit.

For those of you in the market for RBK 9K Pump, CCM Vector V10, Bauer One90 or Vapor XXXX skates, you should have a look at the Graf Ultra G70 or another model of Graf Skates from Hockey Giant.com.

Have you ever wondered where Tim Hortons got their Sidney Crosby Commercial idea?

Well, here it is…straight from the 1970’s Scotiabank’s “Grow With Us” commercial promotes saving money and playing hockey to Canada’s children.

With the second round of the playoffs in full swing, I thought I would gather up a group of links that I wanted to write about, but haven’t shared yet.

I hope you enjoy these little anecdotes as much as I did.

Matt gives us a great description of the future of the Flames after free agency season at Battle of Alberta.

Christy notes that the injuries are starting to pile up in this years’ playoffs, especially for the Red Wings.

The San Jose Sharks took advantage of some rare mistakes by the top-ranked Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night to skate away with a 2-0 win in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal at Joe Louis Arena.

Here’s a link to a great video of Snoop Dogg being interviewed at his first hockey game, a Mighty Ducks playoff contest in which he refers to the Ducks as the “Mighty Ducks”. It’s rather funny and certainly worth a look.

Dany Heatley had one goal and two assists as the Ottawa Senators skated to a 5-4 victory over the New Jersey Devils in Game 1 of their conference semifinal on Thursday.

NHL scoring champion Sidney Crosby played the final 21/2 weeks of the regular season and the playoffs with a broken left foot, an injury the Pittsburgh Penguins star didn’t disclose. Meanwhile his All-Star jersey captured a whopping $47,520 at an auction to raise money for cancer research.

Montreal Canadiens forward Alex Kovalev questioned his future with the team during an interview with a Russian newspaper last week, according to a Radio-Canada report. Waiting for Stanley has an appropriate visual for this story.
You can check out Pavel Datsyuk using his new Reebok ‘O’ Stick with Detroit, but it looks like he might have covered up the holes in the shaft…maybe they didn’t actually make his shot any harder?

Ottawa’s Antoine Vermette is still using his Bauer Vapor XXXX Skates, but Carolina didn’t make the playoffs and I haven’t seen anyone other than Eric Cole use the Vapor XXXX Stick yet. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for new hockey equipment, but usually players don’t make many changes to their routines during the playoffs.

Quote of the Day: Off Wing Opinion

What if…

…The U.S. Olympic Team from 1980 at Lake Placid could play one game against Team Canada ‘72?

Check out the story here to see what Eric thinks would happen! You might be shocked.