Back by popular Demand: 2010 Rosie Awards

Back by popular demand, the 2010 Rosie Awards will showcase the best of the hockey world for the third straight year.

Full details will come in a separate preview of the show, but I thought I'd get started with a simple question: What do you want to see in this year's Rosie's? Should I give another lifetime achievement award like I did with Al Strachan last year? Should that anonymous character who posts rumors and innuendos 24/7 be involved somehow? Would you like to see a performance?

First Round Playoff Picks: West

After picking the first round for the East, it is now time to pick the first round in the Western Conference. Click here to view my Eastern Conference picks.

San Jose vs. Colorado

This series is a little similar to the 1-8 matchup in the East. One team was expected to be atop the conference, while one team wasn't really supposed to be in the playoffs. The youthful Avs have a bright future under head coach Joe Sacco, but the Sharks will make quick work of them this year.

Prediction: Sharks in Five

First Round Playoff Picks: East

Well, the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs are about four and a half hours away from puck drop as the Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins open things up at 7:00. That being said, now is a good time to share my first round picks for the Eastern Conference...


Washington vs. Montreal:

Getting to the playoffs even is an accomplishment for the Canadiens this year after a disastrous Centennial season. That being said, the Capitals are that much better and have more depth up front. Defensively, not so much, but they will advance and end the Habs 101st season.

Prediction: Caps in Four

Rosie's Rebounds: Hall vs. Seguin

With the first pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, the Edmonton Oilers select…

Okay, we won’t know quite yet whom the Oilers will select with the first pick, but we do know that it will either be Taylor Hall (Windsor Spitfires) or Tyler Seguin (Plymouth Whalers) from the Ontario Hockey League. So why can’t the speculation begin now?

This should be the most intriguing choice since 1987 (from a Canadian Hockey perspective) when the Buffalo Sabres took Pierre Turgeon of the Granby Bisons of the QMJHL as the No. 1 overall pick over Brendan Shanahan (London Knights, OHL), who was picked second by the New Jersey Devils.

Both players went on to have a long and successful career. Turgeon scored 515 goals and tallied 1327 points in his 19-year NHL career with the Sabres, Islanders, Canadiens, Blues, Stars and Avalanche, while Shanahan scored 656 goals and gathered 1,354 points in his 21 seasons with the Devils, Blues, Red Wings, Rangers and the old Hartford Whalers.

The major difference between the two, however, is the playoff success. Turgeon never made an appearance in the Stanley Cup during his career and only played in the conference finals once in 2001 with the Blues (he could have played in two conference finals if it wasn’t for Dale Hunter’s cheap shot in 1993 in the Patrick Division Finals, see video below). Meanwhile, Shanahan won three Cups with the Red Wings.

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

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!

NHL to run Pick 15 Super Saturday Twitter Promotion

With the NHL season starting Thursday, hockey fans are starting to follow their team(s) and the media through Twitter. Well, it looks like Twitter will be talked about more in the NHL when Super Saturday arrives a couple days later.

Early this morning on NHL.com, the league announced that they will run a contest where followers of the NHL Twitter page can pick the 15 games in what the league is calling their #NHLPick15 contest. Here is the schedule of games for October 3:

Chicago vs. Florida (Game to be played in Helsinki, Finland)

Detroit vs. St. Louis (Game to be played in Stockholm, Sweden)

Vancouver @ Colorado

Carolina @ Boston

Montreal @ Buffalo

Philadelphia @ New Jersey

Pittsburgh @ New York Islanders

Ottawa @ New York Rangers

Toronto @Washington

Tampa Bay @ Atlanta

Minnesota @ Columbus

Nashville @ Dallas

Calgary @ Edmonton

San Jose @ Anaheim

Phoenix @ Los Angeles

There will be a tiebreaker involved in this, just in case it is needed. This tiebreaker consists of the combined penalty minutes for the 15 games.

Since tweets are only 140 characters (or less), here is an example entry on how to pick winners:

@NHL ANA, BOS, CBJ, CGY, CHI, LAK, MTL, NAS, NYR, PHI, PIT, STL, TBL, VAN, WSH 300 pims #NHLPick15

For all of you last minute folks, the deadline for entries is Friday October 2nd at 11:59 P.M.