Thursday, October 29, 2009

Bruins-Devils Pregame

Good morning from the TD Garden. We are currently having server problems over at Inside Hockey. We'll get those fixed as soon as possible, but for now, here are a few notes from today's morning skate.

- Martin Brodeur, the all-time winningest goaltender in NHL history, has the night off. Yann Danis will start in net for the Devils.
- Tim Thomas will start for the Bruins.
- The Devils have not lost a game away from the Prudential Center (aka "The Rock") yet. They are 5-0 on the road, but only 1-4 at home.
- The Devils lost last night to the Buffalo Sabres 4-1.
- The Bruins are looking for back-to-back wins for the first time this season. They are 2-0-1 since Milan Lucic and Marc Savard have been out of the lineup, both due to injuries.
- Tonight marks the first night of a six games in days stretch for the Black and Gold.

Locker Room Reaction: Bruins

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Official NHL Facebook Page now Up




Kudos to the NHL for launching their Facebook Page. As of 4:36 P.M. the page has 1,841 fans.

For a page that was just launched last night at 7:29, and for that matter a page that has not even been up for 24 hours, its a pretty big accomplishment.

NHL Facebook Page:

http://www.facebook.com/NHL?ref=search&sid=17908558.2696959929..1

Friday, October 23, 2009

Rosie's Rebounds: 10/23/09

A Ruckus in Tampa Bay?

If you haven’t seen the latest antics from the Tampa Bay Lightning, well, let’s just say they are a little bizarre.

After practice earlier this week, the Lightning roster, excluding their coaching staff, decided to take part in a contest called “The Naked Shootout.” This was originally seen in the popular Puck Daddy blog at Yahoo.

Rules are simple, you miss a goal and you remove an article of clothing. You score a goal and you’re safe. Unfortunately for Martin St. Louis, that was not the case, as you will see in this video.





The Return of Jack Edwards:

Boston Bruins play-by-play announcer -- and Rosie Award winner for the Howard Cosell Tell em’ Like you See em’ award -- Jack Edwards returned to the city of “Brotherly Love” last night when the Bruins took on the Flyers. Of course we all remember the “incident” back on March 29 when he cackled over Bruins forward Milan Lucic leveling defenseman Randy Jones.

While Jones shouldn’t be excused for his hit on Patrice Bergeron a couple years ago, he didn’t need the extra "irony" from Edwards.

Here’s the clip of the incident (with a little bonus)



Bonus Video





Still in early season mode, Edwards was quite mellow in the Bruins – Flyers game last night (maybe due to Lucic and Jones both not playing in last nights game). Nothing really to report, but hopefully we
won’t hear another "history lesson" from Edwards this year, like we saw in the playoffs when the Bruins faced the rival Montreal Canadiens.



Speaking of Brotherly Love…

...Last year’s Rosie Award recipient for the Brotherly Love award, the brothers Kostitsyn, have been in the news recently – well at least one of them.

Unfortunately for Sergei Kostitsyn, he was a victim of being sent down to Hamilton of the AHL to start the year. Just recently, Sergei walked out on the Habs AHL affiliate, and was suspended by GM Bob Gainey for the second time this year.

This time, Pat Hickey from The Montreal Gazette reports that he would leave Montreal and sign
with the KHL in Russia.

Another bizarre story from one member of the brother’s Kostitsyn.

College Hockey All-Access Debuts Tomorrow

The Hockey Commissioners’ Association and NHL Home Ice radio (XM 204, Sirius 208) announced that the debut of College Hockey All-Access for tomorrow at 11 a.m. ET.

Scheduled to appear are last year’s Hobey Baker winner and New York Rangers defenseman Matt Gilroy; head coaches Keith Allain of Yale, Scott Owens of Colorado College and Enrico Blasi of Miami University; Colgate senior forward David McIntyre; and hockey historian and Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Famer Jack Grinold.

This is another great way for college hockey to gain more exposure, as the show will air for 26 straight weeks, from now until the Frozen Four in April.

Rebounds of the Week

In honor of the College Hockey All-Access show debuting tomorrow, our rebounds of the week will be NCAA related. So without further ado, here are your rebounds of the week.

Player: Brad Phillips G, Notre Dame:

After his two losses against Providence and Alabama-Huntsville, both at home, Phillips bounced back with a sensational performance against the defending National Champions, the Boston University Terriers. Phillips stopped all 34 shots he faced en route to a 3-0 win for Notre Dame.

Team: Alabama-Huntsville

The UAH Chargers were denied admission to the CCHA this summer after Nebraska-Omaha announced they were moving to the WCHA in 2010-11. So far they are 3-1 on the season, which included a sweep of Air Force just last weekend. The Chargers also earned a split against Notre Dame.

Whether they’re playing with a chip on their shoulder, or they have that fire in their eyes, it is still good to see Huntsville off to a good start under head coach Danton Cole.

Game: Wisconsin at Minnesota State (Friday and Saturday)

Wisconsin could only come away with one point against Colorado College last weekend in Madison, while Minnesota State was swept by Minnesota-Duluth. Wisconsin is 0-1-1 on the young season, while Minnesota State is 2-2-0.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Flyers' new villain: Jack Edwards?

We all know that Boston Bruins play-by-play announcer Jack Edwards, is just a bit biased when calling the action. When the B's are playing their hated rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, Edwards doesn't stop there. In fact he takes it further.

However, even though Edwards had his Revolutionary War rant against the Habs in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals last year, and was unhappy about the Habs jerseys when they played the Bruins on Super Bowl Sunday - remember in the end he said: "The final, the Bruins 3, the inmates 1." -  his incident in Philadelphia on March 29, tops everything.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

More B.S. from Eklund (e5)



In case your wondering, the anonymous blogger named Eklund (aka Dwayne Kissel, pictured above) pretty much knows how to B.S. his way in the hockey world. In 2007, Dwayne supported the Nashville Predators cause to stay in the Music City.

Recently on twitter, Dwayne supported Adrianne Dater's quest to get 1,000 followers by Thursday. If that doesn't happen, Dater said he will get rid of his twitter account.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Rosie's Rebounds: 10/9/09

By now, I’m sure you all know who Canadian Billionaire Jim Balsillie is. You know, that guy who tried to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins. You know, that guy who tried to buy the Nashville Predators. And let’s not forget, he’s the same guy who tried to buy the Phoenix Coyotes just recently.

Did I mention that the Canadian Billionaire tried to move those teams to Hamilton? No, ok didn’t think so. By the way, did anyone think Balsillie had any interest in the Coyotes-Penguins game Wednesday night?

Alright I gave you the answer by now, he has failed to buy all those teams mentioned and is now 0-3. This will lead to a first for me on top of my weekly column and that is an early Rosie award (keep in mind, this will not happen often so cherish this moment while you can).

Before Balsillie gets his Rosie award let’s take a look at what teams might be the next victim in the wrath of Balsillie. After this, you’ll probably see the odds come together in Vegas.

The lists of teams are in no particular order:

Atlanta Thrashers
– They aren’t moving to Winnipeg for the time being. Thanks for starting that rumor Al Strachan
(see video below).

Florida Panthers
– Another Sun Belt team. This might be a trend for the future.

New York Islanders
– Unfortunately, the Lighthouse project isn’t coming together. Therefore, the
Isles are most likely going to be a victim.

Tampa Bay Lightning
– Your third Sun Belt team. This is a long shot but again certainly possible.
And now your Al Strachan Rumor Mill via the Hotstove on Hockey Night in Canada:





Oh sorry got off topic for a minute, where was I? Alright now I remember, yes I forgot to give Balsillie his early Rosie award.

So without further ado, the winner of the “Better Luck Next Year” award is indeed, Jim Balsillie.

Now we can spend some time enjoying the game of hockey, but don’t be surprised if big Jim goes after another team next summer.

Ovechkin off to a hot start

The winner of the last two Hart Trophies, Alexander Ovechkin, is off to a hot start in 2009-10. He recorded two goals against the Bruins on opening night and two goals against the Flyers on Tuesday.

While it’s early in the season still, A.O. should already be penciled in as the favorite to win the MVP for a third year in a row. If he does so, he will be in elite company with Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky – the only two players to win the Hart Trophy at least three years in a row (Gretzky won eight consecutive MVPs).

Recently, TSN just did their weekly top 10 on Ovechkin’s top off-ice moments. After watching this, is there any way that we can get a mulligan for the list?





US NTDP Team in Boston this weekend

Tonight, I’ll be heading to Chestnut Hill to see the US NTDP U18 team play Boston College. It’s always a treat to see the NTDP in action, even though it’s an exhibition. On this year’s roster, five players have already committed to the University of Michigan (G Jack Campbell, D Kevin Clare
and Jon Merrill, F Jacob Fallon and Luke Moffatt) for the 2010-11 season.

Forward Bill Arnold, will be attending BC next year, so head coach Jerry York and company will get a little glimpse into the future.

It will also be great to see former Merrimack goaltender Joe Exter. Exter is now an assistant coach with the U18 team and many still remember the scary collision involving him and former Eagle standout Patrick Eaves back in 2003.

During the 2002-03 season, he was voted on the All-Hockey East second team. Since then he had coaching stints in American International and a scouting stint with the Cedar Rapids Rough Riders of the USHL before coming to USA hockey.

See ya next week, where I'll debut my rebound player of the week - after all I have to be loyal to the title of my column, right?

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Big News

Apologies to all the readers out there for not updating the blog in the past. During the past week, we have had a redesign launch over at Inside Hockey which came out very well. We still have a few bugs to fix but check it out a lot of good stuff on the site.

Speaking of Inside Hockey the big news is that my weekly column: Rosie's Rebounds will debut tomorrow on the site, and on this blog. It should also be in tomorrow's newsletter.

Busy night in the NHL tonight, and college hockey starts tomorrow. Happy belated hockey season to all!