Did Rivet Make That Big Of A Difference?
Oct 31, 2008 NHL
A terrible, terrible effort all around last night. Nobody to move the Lightning players out from in front of the net, bad passing, and general lazy skating. Ruff held a meeting before practice today, according to WGR, and after which it appeared he had juggled the lines. Mike Weber was out, not surprising considering Tallinder was back last night. That also may be explained by the fact that Connolly practiced, centering Pominville and MacArthur. Vanek and Roy were with Kotalik (which has worked for short stretches in the past), Goose had Paille and Kaleta and Mair was with Stafford and Afinogenov. Hecht, Ellis and Peters all practiced but you may have your forward scratches for Saturday right there if Hecht isn’t ready yet.
Speaking of Saturday, Ovechkin is still out for the Caps, back home visiting his ailing Grandfather. Alexander Semin has picked up the scoring so far this year, though, so you can’t discount the Capitals. 7pm start time at HSBC Arena…if they begin the game the way they have for the past few, expect the natives to be restless.
Tags: alexander ovechkin, Alexander Semin, buffalo, connolly, Drew Stafford, ellis, gaustad, hecht, Hockey, kaleta, kotalik, lightning, macarthur, mair, Maxim Afinogenov, NHL, ovechkin, paille, peters, pominville, roy, ruff, sabres, tallinder, tampa bay, the kaleta, Thomas Vanek, weber
Road Trip!
Aug 12, 2008 NHL
Drew from Illegal Curve found out the sad truth of Carolina hockey, and it was at a Durham Bulls game:
I sauntered over to find, unmanned and unmonitored I remind you, a table filled with “Buy one ticket, get one ticket free coupons” for Carolina Hurricanes hockey games.
Normally, a little cross-promotion for some of those early season stinkers wouldn’t be so bad, except that’s not what this was:
via Getty Images
Limit 8 tickets per person.
The kicker: No one monitoring the table where these are being distributed. An individual could have picked up hundreds of these coupons.
…
The majority of the arena applies to this promo. Only exceptions are the “Champion’s Club”, “V.I.P. Ledge”, and “Upper Goal Zone”.
I’d worry about a “V.I.P. Ledge” to be honest, wouldn’t your drunker fans fall off? But seriously, as I mentioned, these tickets were for games against the Blue Jackets or Kings, with opponents including the Washington Ovechkins, Anaheim and New Jersey. I think I’m honored that none of the Sabres games were included. Guess they know what fans will REALLY fill the seats. H/T to Puck Daddy.
.
Tags: alexander ovechkin, anaheim, buffalo, capitals, Carolina, devils, ducks, Hockey, Hurricanes, new jersey, NHL, ovechkin, sabres, washington
Thomas Vanek
Jul 31, 2008 NHL
Thanks to valorfaerie at flickr
Sabres.com put up a feature on TV’s stats from this past year, and it got me thinking about him again. I’ve defended him in this space before, and I must’ve inspired him as the next month he ripped it up big time. Here’s a few key things for the sourpusses out there to consider this season:
- Thomas Vanek was credited with 9 game-winning goals, 2 of which were OT winners. Remember that the Sabres only won 39 games last year…so he had the winning tally in nearly 25% of games. Chris Drury had 5 last year, and 9 in his last Sabres season BTW. Briere had 3 last season and 4 in his final season in Buffalo. By the way, check out the sponsor for Danny at Hockey-Reference.
- 19 goals on the power play, behind only Alexander Ovechkin.
- 20 points in February, when the Sabres really needed to make up ground in the standings. Everybody mentions how he struggled early in the year, but you don’t hear much about that.
- 36 goals, in a season when he had that rough start (and the eyes of every fan and media member drilling into him).
- He’s missed only 1 game since making the big show after the lockout. He works in front of the net a lot, and still manages to stay in the mix night after night.
I’ll be accused of fanboyism, or of having a mancrush, but whatever. I like the guy, and I’ll be very happy when he scores 40+ goals this season.
Tags: alexander ovechkin, briere, buffalo, drury, Hockey, hockey-reference, NHL, ovechkin, sabres, Thomas Vanek
Teams are not cooperating…
Apr 18, 2008 NHL
Come on Boston, just roll over already! Why are you trying so hard, Philly, don’t you know the league wants Ovechkin to advance? Why did Brian Campbell suddenly become competent again? UGH.
Tags: boston, bruins, campbell, capitals, Hockey, NHL, ovechkin, washington
You Win One, You Lose One
Mar 6, 2008 NHL, They Said It
That, at least, seems to be what the Sabres are all about right now. A night after pulling away from Philly in the third (on a missed ‘Too many men’ penalty) to win 5-2, the Sabres dropped one to the Capitals 3-1. Miller was tested early in the game, and though he only faced 23 shots officially, it seemed like half of them were on breakaways. He maybe could’ve had one of them, but the defense minus an injured Henrik Tallinder has to get better if the Sabres truly believe themselves to be a playoff team.
Although it ain’t the officials’ fault, I can’t help but think that officiating in any of the games I’ve seen recently (not just Buffalo games) seems to be on the slide. Here’s hoping it improves for the playoffs, I hate it when the Zebras are a factor in deciding playoff matchups. If it’s in your team’s favor, you never hear the end of it from the fans on the losing side.
edit: just saw this: Ruff tells Flyers to stop whining about no-call:
If we’re going to go back and whine about [how] the play changed the game, I can whine about the officiating. I can find something to whine about every night. … I thought we outplayed them in the third period and deserved to win. Did we get a break? Yeah.
Makes things a little better to get a shot in at the Flyers, even with the Caps loss.
Tags: capitals, flyers, Hockey, NHL, ovechkin, philadelphia, Ryan Miller, sabres, tallinder, washington
Ovechkin! /Crosby
Jan 11, 2008 NHL
There was a rumor a few days ago that Alexander Ovechkin was going to sign a 6 year, 54 million dollar deal with the Capitals. Well, he’s signed, but for more than DOUBLE THAT. 13 years, $124 million. It’s not the longest deal ever, thanks to Garth Snow signing DiPietro to that 15 year deal, but it IS the only deal to guarantee 100+ million smackers.
Ovie has been a superstar pretty much from the word go. He has goal totals of 52 and 46 in his first two seasons, and 32 already this year. There are few players who I would gamble on for a deal that long, but Ovechkin is one of them. It seems crazy to think that the Caps will now have the services of AO until my son would be graduating high school. WOW.
Tags: alexander ovechkin, capitals, Hockey, huge contract, NHL, ovechkin, signing, washington
