The First Goaltender To Captain An NHL Team

While Roberto Luongo, as Captain of the Vancouver Canucks, is the only goaltender to have that honor bestowed upon him currently, it certainly isn’t a novel idea.

The first goaltender to be named Captain of an NHL team was John Ross Roach.  Roach was named Captain of the Toronto St. Pats back in the 1924-25 season.

Roach was nicknamed “Little Napolean”, mostly because of his small size (5′5″) as well as his temper.  Having a goaltender as a captain suited the St. Pats coach, Eddie Powers, just fine. He would often have Roach start a debate with an official to give his team a rest.

In total, seven goaltenders have served as captains of their respective NHL teams over the course of history. Along with Roach and Luongo there were George Hainsworth, Roy Worters, Alex Connell, Bill Durnan and Charlie Gardiner.

Charlie Gardiner also holds the record of being the only goaltender to captain a Stanley Cup winning team. Gardiner was the captain of the 1933-34 Chicago Blackhawks 3 Games to 1 in the Stanley Cup final.

Game Four of the Stanley Cup final went to double overtime, but Gardiner had left the game after regulation due to health problems. He passed away that summer as a result of a brain hemorrhage.

source: Wikipedia

Video: Rick Rypien Fights Brandon Prust Twice!

Rick Rypien and Brandon Prust are two of the best middle-weight fighters in the National Hockey League and they went toe-to-toe twice during this game.  Both have fought NHL heavyweights and held their own, so when they squared off against each other, there was no doubt hockey fans were in for a great tilt.

Round 1: Rypien vs. Prust

The first of the two of the two was what appeared to be a “staged fight”, the ones that the NHL is trying to get rid of.  Both Rypien and Prust looked to be asking each other to fight as they lined up at the faceoff.  While I might agree that staged fights are mostly pointless, this turned out to be a very entertaining bout with both players landing some heavy blows.

Round 2: Rypien vs. Prust

The second fight between Prust and Rypien happened later on in the game, in the second period. This fight was more of a wrestling match, but was evidence of their passion and animosity for each other. Only  a few punches were thrown, but you can hear the Vancouver fans chanting “Rypien, Rypien” in the background… and they want to take fighting out of the game? Please.

Video: Darcy Hordichuk Fights Krys Barch

Darcy Hordichuk got a great piece of Toby Petersen at center ice with a clean hit and was instantly challenged to a fight by Krys Barch.

You know, I get the fact that players have to be protected on the ice and that is part of Krys Barch’s job, but I’m also getting sick of guys getting challenged to fights when they’ve simply made a clean body check.

In any event, both Hordichuk and Barch landed a few punches in this fight, but I think it’s one of those fights that just didn’t have to happen.

Of course, this is easier said than done because in the heat of the moment Barch sees Hordichuk level Petersen at center ice and it’s just instinct on his part to come to his teammate’s defense.

Enjoy the video of the fight below… what do you think? Was this fight necessary?

Historical NHL Free Agent Signings on July 6

July 6th has typically been a busy day over the course of history. With some quality free agents still available, is there any reason to believe that this season will be any different?

If history is any indicator, we might see some of those available free agents signing contracts today!

Historical July 6 NHL Free Agent Signings

July 6, 2004 – Phoenix Coyotes signed free agent defenseman Sean O’Donnell, who had been with the Boston Bruins.

July 6, 2004 – Ottawa Senators signed free agent goaltender Dominik Hasek.

July 6, 2004 – Los Angeles Kings signed free agent Craig Conroy, who had been with the Calgary Flames.

July 6, 2001 – Minnesota Wild signed free agent Andrew Brunette. Brunette went on to lead all 2001 Free Agents – in scoring, with 69 points in 2001-02.

July 6, 2001 – Boston Bruins signed free agent left wing Rob Zamuner.

July 6, 2000 – Philadelphia Flyers signed free agent Michal Sykora.

July 6, 2000 – Los Angeles Kings signed free agent Stu Grimson.

July 6, 1999 – New York Rangers signed free agents Valeri Kamensky and Stephane Quintal.

July 6, 1998 – Nashville Predators signed free agent Tom Fitzgerald, and named him the first Captain in team history.

July 6, 1994 – Philadelphia Flyers signed free agent Craig MacTavish

July 6, 1983 – Detroit signed free agent goaltender Ken Holland, who went on to play 3 games with the Red Wings in 1983-84, finishing with a 4.11 GAA.

*Incidentally, Holland was named the Red Wings General Manager in 1997.

July 6, 1983 – Boston Bruins signed free agent Geoff Courtnall

July 6, 1978 – The Islanders signed John Tonelli as a free agent. Tonelli went on to star with the Islanders’ four Stanley Cup Winners.

NHL Digest Twitter Hockey Links

*This is a new feature of NHL Digest, so please feel free to let me know your thoughts.

I am very active on twitter, sharing thoughts and links at www.twitter.com/nhldigest. That said, I thought it would be great for everyone to log all of my Twitter posts for the day into one place!

If you like it, let me know and I’ll update it daily in the “Hockey Links” Category!

On This Day in Hockey History

On July 5, 1995 the New York Islanders hired Mike Milbury as their head coach, taking over for Lorne Henning.

On July 5, 1979 the Boston Bruins named Fred Creighton as their new head coach, replacing Don Cherry.

NHL Links

Do The Blackhawks Believe Hossa Is Jinxed? http://ff.im/-4Q385

NHL finalizes investigation into Blackhawks qualifying offers – Looks like the issue could be dead. http://ff.im/-4PRKv

The Penguins’ five-year plan, executed in four! – by @Mirtle http://ff.im/-4PMJs

Did Tampa Bay tamper with Mattias Ohlund? – by @Sean_Leahy http://ff.im/-4PLfk

Plenty of stuff about McSorley that you likely don’t know. http://ff.im/-4PGhW

Ottawa journalist wears Heatley jersey in public as an experiment…Good for some laughs! http://ff.im/-4PFYg

Hossa says he chose Chicago because “They have a chance to win the Cup”. Sound familiar? http://ff.im/-4PFDu

Touted Swedish goaltender, Jonas Gustavsson, expects to sign in the next couple of days http://ff.im/-4Pw9V

Los Angeles Kings Q&A with their newest player Ryan Smyth http://ff.im/-4Pdhu

Leafs new signing, Exelby and Ron Hextall weigh in on Heatley debacle  http://ff.im/-4OzLR

Upcoming on NHL Digest

Monday morning I will be featuring an interview with Washington Capitals strength and conditioning coach,Mark Nemish, on NHL Digest.

Again, please feel free to leave comments and suggestions and be sure to follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/nhldigest.

Also a new feature for NHL Digest is the ability to comment on an article directly from twitter! All you have to do is respond with an “@” reply to the Tweet with the article link in it and your comment will be added to the comments section below the article.

If you’re on Facebook, please hook up with almost 700 other hockey fans at the NHL Digest Facebook Page!

1st Round Impressions and 2nd Round Predictions

With the first round of the NHL playoffs in the books, it’s time to take a brief look back on who impressed, who disappointed, and what’s next.

Thoughts on Round 1

Boston certainly look like a deep, talented and disciplined team. Coach Julien took Coach/GM Gainey to school. Everything Julien did worked out beautifully. Nothing Gainey did worked at all. A long playoff run looks to figure in Boston’s future, while a long summer of upheaval on and off the ice beckons for Montreal.

Washington deserved to win at least the first 6 games of their series with the Rangers, thanks to the brilliance of Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist . In what can only be considered as a cruel twist of fate, the Rangers probably deserved to win game 7, but their anemic offense was not able to generate enough production. Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, and Markus Naslund – hang your heads in shame. Alexander Ovechkin wasn’t at his best, yet the Rangers still couldn’t muster enough to pull the upset.

Who would have guessed that the Devils and Hurricanes would have produced a 7 game series of must-see hockey. Martin Brodeur and Cam Ward were altogether brilliant in their matchup, with each pitching shutouts and posting 40+ save performances. It was nothing short of epic. Everything looked promising for the Devils until there was 2 minutes left in the 3rd. Tim Gleason made a season-saving play at the blue line to keep the puck in. Jussi Jokinen scored shortly after to tie the game, and Eric Staal won it less than a minute later. Needless to say, the Devils (and probably the Canes too) were stunned. The Devils have now been bounced in the first round in 4 of their last 5 playoff appearances. After looking like world beaters when Brodeur came back from his arm injury, this has to be devastating.

The battle of Pensylvannia was also a good series, highlighted by some good goaltending performances from M.A. Fleury. Once again, Philadelphia’s goaltending was not good enough to carry them to the promised land. When will their management learn that guys like Biron, Esche, Cechmanek, Antero Niittymaki and other underacheivers are not the type of goalie needed to win the cup? It’s been their achilles heel for ages, and looks like it will continue to be so.

In what has to be the biggest disappointment of the year, the San Jose Sharks rolled over – yet again when it mattered most. Joe Thornton did his level best, but again it was not nearly enough. He shares an enormous set of goat horns with Patrick Marleau for their tank job. There’s got to be some fallout in San Jose because of this? I wonder what Ron Wilson is thinking right about now? To me, this series was predictable. I didn’t even give the Sharks a chance to make it a 7 game series against the Ducks. Hall of famers Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer, not to mention the heroic Jonas Hiller knocked out the President Trophy winners. Again.

What can be said of the defending champs? The Red Wings total dismantling of the upstart Blue Jackets was nothing short of impressive. Were the Blue Jackets just excited to have been there, or are the Wings yet again that good? Can it be both? Chris Osgood, as he promised, was better than he had been in the regular season, while Blue Jackets super rookie Steve Mason fell back to earth after a stunning regular season perfomance. They’ll be back, but for now they’ve got to deal with this piece of humble pie.

Vancouver may have swept the Blues, but they were life & death in doing so. The Blues fought hard in each of their 4 games and probably deserved to win at least 1. That being said, Roberto Luongo looks like a man poised to good deep, and also has his gaze on the #1 role for team Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympics. With or without Mats Sundin, beating Luongo 4 times out of 7 is going to be tough for any team.

Personally, the biggest surprise of the first round was the Chicago Blackhawks. I did not expect them to show so much spirit and poise in their first playoff appearance. Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, Kris Versteeg, Martin Havlat, and the rest of the team showed unusual poise for such a young bunch. As for the Flames…you’ve got to feel sorry for them. They were banged up on the blue line like no other team West of Montreal, but so much more was expected, especially after they acquired Mike Cammalleri, Olli Jokinen and Jordan Leopold.

Quick Predictions for Round 2

Boston Bruins (1) vs Carolina Hurricanes (6)
The top seeded Bruins draw another low seed – but this Hurricane team is not your garden variety low seed. They’ve got chemistry and experience. Perhaps most importantly, they’ve got Cam Ward who continues to fly under the radar. The Bruins are healthy, and remain the deepest team in the East. I expect them to topple the Hurricanes, but it won’t be easy. Early rust will affect them in game 1, but they’ll sail from there. Zdeno Chara will get the assignment of shutting down Staal, and he’ll get that job done. The rest of the Bruins depth, starting with Phil Kessel and Patrice Bergeron will be too much for the Hurricanes to handle.

Boston in 6.

Washington Capitals (2) vs Pittsburgh Penguins (4)
In what can only be described as Gary Bettman’s fantasy, we get a playoff matchup between Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin. And the stars don’t stop there. The Penguins will be throwing MVP candidate and Art Ross winner Evgeni Malkin out there, Jordan Staal, Sergei Gonchar, and a plethora of competent supporting talent. Washington counters with Alexander Semin, Niklas Backstrom, Mike Green and their own cast of veteran talent. The wild card in this series is Simeon Varlamov. It’s one thing to beat the Rangers’ paltry offense. It’s another thing entirely to ask a 20 year old to stop 2 of the best hockey players in the world.

Pittsburgh in 7.

Detroit Red Wings (2) vs Anaheim Ducks (8)
How long can the Ducks ride this wave? Did they run in to a collection of playoff chokers, or are they a battle-hardened group of veterans who don’t need the red carpet rolled out for them? We will have our answer after this round. Can round 1 hero Jonas Hiller continue to baffle opposition shooters? Or will the Red Wings collection of championship stars find a way to deflate this guy’s balloon? Playoff goaltending heroics are not rare throughout history, and they can take teams from improbable 8th seeds to the finals (see Dwayne Roloson with the Oilers in 2005), but in this case, my money is going on the champs to continue their roll and send the Ducks packing for the summer. Too much top end skill to be contained.

Detroit in 6.

Vancouver Canucks (3) vs Chicago Blackhawks (4)
This ought to be a fun series to watch. These teams don’t like each other. Each team has what the other team doesn’t. The Canucks have top flight goaltending, while the Hawks have top notch talent. It will be a contest between the Hawks’ young guns vs the Canucks defense corps and Roberto Luongo. Can Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows support the Sedins enough offensively to put them over the top? Can Mats Sundin be the X factor for the Canucks? This is why they acquired him, so it’s time for him to get back in the lineup and show why he should be considered as one of the all-time greats. He’ll never have a better chance at Lord Stanley’s mug than he will this year.

Vancouver in 7.

If I’m right, and I’m usually not, we’ll have conference finals that look like this:

East
Boston (1) vs Pittsburgh (4)

West
Detroit (2) vs Vancouver (3)

I’d love to hear your thoughts and your predictions!

Next Page »