Archive for January, 2008

The following is the video of Ilya Kovalchuk being injured by a hit from Jarkko Ruutu.  The hit was certainly unintentional as Kovalchuk saw Ruutu coming and tried to avoid him.

Ilya didn’t manage to avoid Ruutu completely and left his right knee vulnerable as he ducked out of the way.  Ruutu didn’t stick out his leg to catch Kovalchuk’s knee, but Steve McCarthy took exception to seeing his star player hurt and dropped the gloves to take on Ruutu.

It is always a shame to see people injured, but I personally think if Kovalchuk would have stayed put and took the hit like players are taught in Pee-Wee hockey, this whole incident would have been avoided.

What do you think?

I wonder if karma has anything to do with this?  I do hope that Ilya is not seriously injured, but it’s interesting that this happened following the recent hit that Kovalchuk put on Rozsival.

Bob from Canes Country writes: 

If New York Rangers coach Tom Renney was trying to send a message by sending Sean Avery out on the ice for the opening faceoff, Scott Walker wasn’t impressed. Walker and Avery started to mix things up before the drop of the puck and received matching roughing penalties before any time had elapsed. Even though both troublemakers went to the box, that wasn’t the end of the rough stuff. Both teams were just getting started.

With earlier injuries suffered by Matt Cullen and Andrew Ladd by the hands of the Rangers fresh on the Hurricanes minds, it seemed that they wanted to send a few messages themselves.

Fill It Up Sir 

The entire first period was a fight filled, penalty ridden mess. After getting out of the box, Walker boarded Scott Gomez on a play which probably warranted a penalty, but none was called. Perhaps Walker was just letting the Rangers know that if they intended to headhunt Carolina’s better players like they did last game, it wasn’t going to be tolerated this time around.

Ding…Ding..Ding and In This Corner

The rough stuff precipitated a huge scrum and Sean Avery ended up with an instigator penalty, Tim Gleason got a game misconduct for being the 3rd man in, and Walker and Avery each got fighting majors. Just a minute prior to that, Colton Orr beat on Wade Brookbank pretty badly, and WB needed to go to the dressing room to get stitched up. To the scrapper’s credit though, he came back and fought Orr again in the 2nd period, even with the freshly stitched face.

While it was exciting, the 1st period really was not a good one for the Canes. They allowed a powerplay goal one minute into the game. They totally blew a two minute 5 on 3 opportunity as they barely even got a shot on net. They looked horrible as they whiffed on shots, fanned on passes, and were sometimes out-hustled. The 2nd and 3rd periods were pretty much all Hurricanes though.

Some highlights…

Sergei Samsonov continues to earn his keep as he took a beautiful pass from Ray Whitney and lifted a pretty backhander over a sprawled Henrik Lundqvist to tie the score for the Canes in the 2nd period.

Just a bit later in the same period, Rod Brind’Amour and Samsonov had an odd man rush and the Captain used Sergei as a decoy as he faked a pass and beat Lundqvist himself for the eventual game winner. Mike Commodore created the play and was able to feed Brind’Amour the puck as the defenseman now has a 3 game point streak!

In the 3rd period, Chad LaRose made a beautiful pass to Trevor Letowski who had beaten his man and the much maligned 4rth liner was able to get the puck past Lundqvist which ended up to be the back-breaker for the Rangers. I admit, Letowski looked very good on the play. The Trevor Letowski fanclub can rejoice!

Cam Ward had 34 saves and earned 1st star honors, but to be honest had a bit of luck in a frantic couple of sequences in front of his net in the 2nd period. At one time, the netminder lost his stick and was down and out. Nic Wallin assumed the goalie’s position and stopped one shot.

I believe that Glen Wesley may have stopped another at a different point in the period. There was another time when the goalie had lost track of the puck and was turned sideways, but the New York forward hit the puck under his legpad while Cam was still searching for the puck. To his credit, he was as solid as a rock in the 3rd period though, especially during a Rangers flurry near the end of the game.

The Hurricanes defense deserves all the credit in the world. With Tim Gleason thrown out of the game early in the 1st period, the 5 veterans had to get the job done all on their own and they did a fine job. Maybe that week off gave them a much needed breath of fresh air? Special kudos goes to Bret Hedican, who even though he took a bad cross-checking penalty in the 2nd, played a very good and physical game overall and sent a couple of messages himself.

The Three Stars 

Scott Walker, Rod Brind’Amour, and Cam Ward were the 3 stars and deservedly so, but let’s give the 4rth star to Hedican. Some Rangers fans might not appreciate the shot that he gave to Petr Prucha, but Bret can always say that his arms came up to “protect himself”, the same reasoning that Colton Orr gave when he leveled Matt Cullen in New York with elbows up high as well.

This win along with the Washington Capitals loss in Montreal gives Carolina a 3 point lead in the division. The Caps still have 2 games in hand though and who knows which Hurricanes team fans will see on Thursday night against the Leafs. Still, this was a well-earned victory and hopefully something that the Hurricanes can build on. But they better work on their 5 on 3 powerplay!

The Anaheim Ducks are thrilled to have Selanne back as was announced yesterday and predicted by in a previous article here on NHL Digest.   The Ducks signed Selanne to a one-year contract for which the financial terms were not disclosed.  Selanne scored 48 goals last season and was an integral part of the Stanley Cup championship run.

I guess it just wouldn’t be dramatic enough for “Hollywood” to have two of their star veteran players contemplate retirement after winning the Stanley Cup just to have them come back at the beginning of the next season. No, that just wouldn’t carry enough anticipation or controversy to gain any momentum in the media.

Even though Selanne was previously quoted as saying he was happy to get the time off to spend with his boys and newborn, he  handled the press conference like the crafty veteran he is:

“I’m very happy and excited to be back,” Selanne said. “I’m very happy that things worked out with Brian Burke and the Samuelis. It’s awesome that they gave me the chance to come in this late. Obviously, there are great teammates and great fans here. It’s awesome to part of it again.

The first practice back with the teammates was very exciting. It was a pretty hard practice. I almost forgot how tough it is. I really feel this is a good time to come back and go on the road with my teammates. I think that gives a little more privacy and the ability to get together with new teammates and get back into action. I don’t know when I’m going to be ready to play.

As much as it seems orchestrated that Niedermayer returned just in time to somehow manage to be named to the All-Star team and that Selanne magically came to a decision after taking half of the season off - I just don’t think that is Brian Burke’s style.

And, of course Burke is ecstatic to have Selanne back:

“It took Teemu several months to determine if he had the passion and determination to return to the NHL, and we are thrilled to have him back,” said Executive Vice President/General Manager Brian Burke. “This is a player who scored 48 goals last year and showed no signs of slowing down.”

It will be interesting to see how the Ducks come together down the stretch, having the added scoring touch of the Finnish Flash!  That is assuming he can return to the form that netted him 94 points last season, garnered him 76 Goals in his rookie campaign and won him the Rocket Richard trophy in 1998-99.

While there seemed to be much anticipation heading into the mid-season classic in Atlanta, there were a few skeptics that thought the celebration of the elite had lost it’s allure for both fans and players alike.

I must admit that I was somewhat skeptical of attraction that the game would have for the fans,  especially without premiere caliber intermission entertainment and the number of All-Stars not attending due to injuries or otherwise.

However, as the All Star weekend drew to a close this evening, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the weekend’s events.   Versus did a fine job with the added features on their website and the entertainment value for the fans was higher than I had expected.

While I am not a fan of the 3 on3 format of the young stars game, I was thoroughly impressed with the play of Boston’s Milan Lucic.  He showed exceptional hands and was certainly a man among boys as far as strength and power of the youngsters was concerned.  It is clearly too early to judge his career, but the 0comparisons to Cam Neely that are coming out of Boston just might have some merit.

I was somewhat disappointed with the new breakaway challenge competition and the lack of effort and creativity that the majority of the participants displayed.  I will, however, not knock the players for trying because it would certainly be difficult to perform moves that you are not used to practicing in from of 20,000 fans.

Gary Bettman noted on XM Radio following the competition that he fully expects this new format to continue, so we might see some great moves next year when the players have more time to prepare and know what to expect.  I personally don’t see hockey players in general as the type of “camera happy” show-offs that the NBA players are, but time will tell.

Is it just me or is Alexander Ovechkin the happiest person on the face of the earth?  This kid just exudes passion and a love for the sport that is unparalleled in my opinion.  Ovechkin’s toothless grin seems to be permanently painted on his face from ear to ear - how can you not love that?

In a time where most players see the game as work and each day at the rink as another day at the office, Ovechkin wears his love for the game on his sleeve.  Regardless if 100 people  or 100,000 people are watching, if there is a puck to chase around and a net to put it in, he doesn’t have a care in the world.

While the NHL’s poster boy is out with a sprained ankle, this is the perfect time to look past Crosby to admire Ovechkin.

Ovechkin is pure.  He doesn’t need to hawk Tim Hortons doughnuts, sell Gatorade or plug RBK; he just has to be himself because he exudes charisma.  His interviews, although conducted in broken English, are always exceptionally genuine and completely sincere. Conversely,  Crosby’s interviews are almost robotic in nature and his responses seem to become more emotionally detached with each passing question.

Don’t get me wrong, Crosby is great for the sport, but if this weekend has taught me anything it is that Alexander Ovechkin is truly an amazing ambassador for the game.

The 2008 NHL All-Star Game weekend is upon us and there are many interesting stories that have been swirling about the internet. Let’s have a look at some of the more interesting ones.

Sportsnet has wafted some new speculation into the air regarding the search for the new General Manager of the Maple Leafs. Wayne Gretzky’s name has now been added to the mix…he never realized his dream of playing for the Leafs, but maybe he could manage them?

Top prospect, Steve Stamkos shows TSN a few moves that we might see in the new NHL Skills competition “Slam Dunk” contest. The following players hav ebeen announced to compete in this competition from each conference:
For the west: Gaborik, Datsyuk and Getzlaf
For the East: Ovechkin, Kovalchuk and St. Louis

Marian Hossa’s future with the Atlanta Thrashers could be decided next week according to the Calgary Sun. Thrashers GM Don Waddell told reporters Friday that he’s going to sit down with Hossa and his Edmonton-based agent Ritch Winter early next week to see if he’ll sign a long-term extension.

On Frozen Blog has posted a vintage video of 1990’s All-Star weekend held in Pittsburgh. Ahhh…let us all enjoy the sight of Gretzky’s Mullet and Mike Gartner’s mustache.

Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks tops the list of impressive rookies playing in the NHL’s so-called YoungStars game, part of Saturday night’s all-star festivities in Atlanta.

The NHL officially announced Saturday its plan to open next season in Europe with four games involving the Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Rangers, Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Carolina Hurricanes started off the season with an 11-4-3 record, built up a double digit lead in the Southeast Division, and were once considered among the top teams in the NHL. But their record in the past 30 games has been an embarrassing 12-17-1 and their lead in the division has evaporated. So what happened, why the big turnaround?

Buts’ Flyer Flies Blog offers us some entertaining advice for this weekend. Not to be outdone by the mainstream media, Buts offered his opinion of the 2008 NHL All Star Game:
“All Star weekend, who gives a crap I hate the All Star game.”

Gotta love it!

Check out the NHL Shop next week for a blowout sale on All Star merchandise…you should be able to pick up some great merchandise at clearance prices.

Enjoy the weekend everyone and look for Teemu to make his return to the Duck’s lineup next week.

While I am certainly glad that Downie was able to get up from this hit, there may be some truth to the saying “what goes around comes around“.

Laraque expressed to the media that he simply “pushed” Downie and that if he wanted to hit someone from behind that they “wouldn’t be getting up”.

I wonder if Laraque, given his reputation and lack of “susperstar” status, will receive more than the one game suspension that Kovalchuk received for hitting Rozsival…which was much more intentional in my opinion.