Yes.. it was well worth watching... a good hockey game .

 

Hockey? What is that?

Oh, wait.....it is that game that causes me to die by inches two to three times a week as the Bruins give a new meaning to the word "underachieve".

 

The Nashville Predators are on a roll this year, guess the coaching change was a good move.

Hey Brandi, what happens when a Canuck plays in Nashville?

 

Oh fuck they lost 5-1

 

Something that the Canucks have not made a habit of here.

 

Honesty I really haven't kept up with the hockey like I used to in the past so am out of the loop. Last year I saw no games at all and this year only a few and Montreal has caught my attention only because when I finally watch a game they are the Canadian team playing. Tomorrow they take on Buffalo, I shall try and watch it since it is still snowing.

The Canucks might not being doing well but they will always get my cheer as they do a lot for our province in charity more then I have heard any other team does. They especially look after kids. Of course it is nice to see Trevor Lindon being president after playing for so many years.

I used to have season tickets to all the WHL games as that is what we get here in my city. I am not quite ready yet to go to a live hockey game, maybe next fall. The major junior ice hockey seems to play harder cause they are trying to get picked and I think it is just more cozy- family like setting in a smaller arena. In the big cities you're watching it on the big screen anyways even if you do go to a live game.

 

I really love the game, but have a hard time watching it on TV, the NHL tickets are quite pricey, so I don't get a lot of them anymore, maybe 10 games a season. We have a lot of junior players on both sides of our family, love to go to those games when I am in toronto, Buffalo or Boston.

Back in '98-99, I got to see the Preds a lot, my wife's nephew was on the teams support crew, he got primo tickets for us gratis. But at that time they were really struggling, just starting out.

 

I like to watch it on TV at home as I can get quite loud when I get into it and especially when they score my arms go up and the computer usually goes flying off my lap and onto the floor, at a live game I am to self conscious.

Tomorrow watch the Buffalo vs Montreal game, okay?

 

Fan enthusiasm is part of the excitement for me at live games, it get infectious.

We have Toronto at Nashville on TV tonight. I'll probably peek in at that occasionally.

 

Just going through memory lane and looking back to some of the entertaining posts and comments. What a fucking joke hockey has turned into today with salaries getting out of hand for players, most of which are highly overpaid and don't ever make the playoffs. The last straw for me was when these fuckers went on strike/were locked out. Maybe it's time for me to "get over it" .

For most of my life I have always had a hockey game on the TV or radio pretty much daily until the last strike and have only watched 2 NHL games since then. Pretty fucked up huh.

Oh well, the World Cup of Hockey is coming in September in Toronto and to miss that that would be downright "UnCanadian". That is going to be some seriously good hockey with an added twist to the format as follows:
Canada
USA
Russia
Sweden
Finland
Czech Republic
Team North America (players 23 and under)
Team Europe (the rest of Europe)

Canada, Czechs, USA and team Europe are in Pool A, Russia, Sweden, Finland and team NA are in Pool B.

Puck drop for the Canadians is at 8pm September17 and 3:30 same day for the Americans. All games are at the Air Canada Center in Toronto.

 

Cool, JPT!


By the way.......GO BRUINS!

 

GO BRONCOS!!!!!!
Oh, sorry. wrong thread.

 

Last two Stanley Cup rioters sentenced to jail time

VANCOUVER - Prosecutions for crimes that took place during the 2011 Stanley Cup riots have come to a close, with two more men sentenced to time behind bars.

Both William Fisher and Jeffrey Milne were found guilty on a series of charges including aggravated assault, taking part in a riot, and break and enter.

Fisher was sentenced to 36 months in prison Friday, while Milne received 32 months.

The sentences are the two highest handed out for crimes committed during the melee, said B.C. Justice Minister Suzanne Anton.

"When you commit criminal acts like that, you can expect that the system will respond. And it has," she said.

The five-hour riot erupted June 15, 2011, moments before the Vancouver Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final to the Boston Bruins.

Businesses and civilians suffered losses estimated at $2.7 million and $540,000, respectively, while the cost to the City of Vancouver, B.C. Ambulance Service and St. Paul's Hospital was $525,000.

Anton was a Vancouver city councillor at the time and said she remembers being downtown right after the riots and seeing the devastation.

"I saw the windows broken, the stores looted," she said. "And over the next few days, I spoke to people who were trapped in the London Drugs, who were trapped in the Hudson's Bay, and they spoke to me about the terror that they felt. They did not know what was going to happen to them."

Prosecutors laid 912 charges against 300 suspects, and 284 people pleaded guilty. Another six had the charges against them stayed, while 10 went to trial, resulting in nine convictions and one acquittal.

The convictions and associated sentences will be a deterrent to others who may commit crimes, Anton said.

A report released last month showed nearly $5 million was spent prosecuting the cases.

Both the police and the prosecutors office took the crimes very seriously, Anton said.

"It was a shocking night in Vancouver," she said. "The damage that was caused, the personal terror that it caused people — it needed a serious response and it got one."

 

With the NHL's trade deadline approaching, check out TSN Hockey's Top 20 players most likely to be dealt by 3pm et on Monday, Feb. 29.

*not_secure_link*www.tsn.ca/tsn-hockey-s-trade-bait-list-1.203546

 

They aren't, it's the getting caught part that seems to work lol. I would have spent much more time on the"right side of the bars" if I had learnt that lesson.

Oh btw:
A: are you picking a fight with all Canadians
B: just asking
C: or did Brandi get that far up your ass

 

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Finally, after years of lobbying to host an outdoor game, the Minnesota Wild will take their skates and sticks to the ice under the winter sky Sunday.

Fittingly, they will face the Chicago Blackhawks, the division rival that has eliminated them from the playoffs in each of the last three years and one of the NHL's premier teams that has already participated in three of these au naturel games.

Fortunately for the Wild, they're playing well enough a week after the firing of head coach Mike Yeo that they haven't spoiled the party.

This will be the 17th time the league has staged an outdoor game, including eight editions of the Winter Classic on New Year's Day, but the players who haven't done this yet will surely find themselves thinking back to those childhood skating sessions at the local park or on the frozen pond for at least a few seconds.

"It's important to really live in the moment and soak in different situations that you get a chance that you get to be a part of. This is one of them," Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk said. "Who knows when you get a chance to be in a situation like this or a game like this again? You don't want to zone out so much that you wake up a week from now and you don't remember any of it."

That goes for the other guys, too.

"There's no doubt your fourth one is not exactly a novelty like it was at first, but still exciting," Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said. "It looks like we're going to get some decent weather, knock on wood."

The forecasts for Sunday are calling for a high temperature of 35 degrees and a dry, partly sunny day.

Given the severe slump that prompted the change on the bench and pushed the Wild (26-22-10) below the cut for the Western Conference wild-card spots, beating the Blackhawks (38-18-5) would mean a lot more than experiencing the nostalgic charm of an outdoor game.

"We'd like to come out with two points, that's for sure," said interim coach John Torchetti, the former Blackhawks assistant who was on staff in 2010 for the first of three Stanley Cup titles the team has won in the last six years.

Torchetti is 3-0 since taking over. The Wild scored five goals in each game, the first time in franchise history they've had such a streak.

So there'll be some urgency surrounding the Wild when they take the ice for the Stadium Series event at TCF Bank Stadium, where the University of Minnesota plays football, but there'll be amusement and appreciation as well. This is Minnesota, after all, the state that produced 36 players on NHL rosters this season and ranks first in the nation in terms of participation according to USA Hockey.

"When you get to be part of these Stadium Series games, I think the NHL has a little faith in your team to put on a good show," Blackhawks star Patrick Kane said. "And obviously in Minnesota here, we know hockey's pretty popular, too, so I'm sure it will be an exciting game."

After the two teams tuned up with a light practice on Saturday, with satisfactory reviews of the ice condition all around, the alumni game came next with a handful of ex-Wild players joining former Minnesota North Stars standouts in a friendly grudge match against Blackhawks greats.

There were many other facets of the weekend-long celebration of the sport, from the fan festival at the stadium, autograph sessions, live music and even a special lighting of the nearby Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River in the Wild's red and green colors.

So the expected capacity crowd of 50,000 people will have plenty to entertain themselves with. Once the puck drops, though, the atmosphere turns serious.

"At the end of the day, at this time of the season especially, we know how important a game it is," Wild forward Zach Parise said. "It's a team that's playing really well and a team that you know you have to go through. We have to make sure that we're ready and try and limit the distractions."

 

Canadiens in awe as 20K fans show up for open practice
The Canadiens talk about how blown away they are by the Montreal faithful after 20 thousand fans showed up to watch the team's open practice on Sunday, especially considering how tough the season has been for the team.

Not a bad feat considering that some other teams have trouble selling half the seats for a scheduled game.

 

Looks like Toronto and Edmonton are in a dogfight to see who will get the first overall draft pick in the upcoming draft this summer.

I can honestly say that I can't recall seeing a team that looks so good on paper being so bad as the Oilers are this year, again.

 

Thumbs down to rewarding losing, up to Flyers' rookie Gostisbehere
By Dave Hodge

Last night in Toronto, the Leafs got a point in an overtime loss to Philadelphia. Last night in Edmonton, the Oilers got nothing in a regulation-time loss to Colorado. Thus, the Leafs and Oilers find themselves sharing 30th place, 29th if you need a reason to be positive. Officially, the Oilers are listed as the NHL’s last-place team because they’ve played three more games than the Leafs.

You’re aware, of course, that the topic here is tanking, and that my thumb is down, as always. I have long believed that the only solution to tanking is a random draw, minus odds, for the number-one draft position, with all 14 non-playoff teams eligible. I must concede that widespread support for this idea has not been forthcoming.

So here’s another one. The day after the trade deadline, the NHL takes the teams sitting in positions 26-30, using points per game to balance the totals, and awards those teams the first five spots in the draft, with the order to be determined. By a lottery? No, by their performance during the rest of the season.

And here’s the kicker; the number-one draft position goes to the team, among those five, that gains the most points, not the fewest. In other words, games in March and April involving those five teams would reward success, not failure. Imagine an 82nd game of the season between the Leafs and the Oilers, with no points separating them, and the best odds on Auston Matthews awaiting the winner.

Further details are available upon request, but the current lottery system, or, preferably, my unweighted version, would be used to determine draft order beyond the fifth position. Should you worry that a team might manoeuvre its way into the bottom five just prior to the trade deadline, I admire your attention to detail here, and offer, yet again, the hat with 14 teams in it.

Something, anything, is needed to remove any advantage that might be gained by losing games. It could be downright exciting to give an edge to winning teams. What a concept!

"Thumbs up” to Shayne Gostisbehere, the rookie defenceman who scored the Flyers’ overtime winner in Toronto, thereby extending his points streak to 15 straight games. No rookie defenceman named Bobby Orr or Paul Coffey and anyone else ever did that. The last time a veteran defenceman enjoyed a longer streak was in 1991, when Brian Leetch counted points 17 games in a row. Not bad for a third-round draft choice from Union College chosen by the Flyers after 77 other names were called in 2012.

With each point as his streak lengthens, Gostisbehere gathers support for the Calder Trophy, and he’d make a bit of history there if he could overtake the still-favoured Artemi Panarin of the Chicago Blackhawks.

The NHL has only had one set of back-to-back winners in the modern history of the rookie award, and that dates back to 1964, when Jacques Laperriere of the Montreal Canadiens followed Toronto’s Kent Douglas.

Last year, it was Florida’s Aaron Ekblad. He was a number-one overall draft choice. You might say he was supposed to be a Calder winner. Not Gostisbehere. And he probably won’t out-vote Panarin, but some of Ekblad’s support was tied to the difficulty of the position he plays. Gostisbehere plays it somewhat differently. When overtime starts, he plays it like Panarin.

 

Red Wings' Lidstrom set to rekindle rivalry
Hall of Fame defenseman will face Avalanche in Stadium Series Alumni Game

DETROIT -- Nicklas Lidstrom has been skating on a regular basis, but he hasn't really been exerting himself.

The former Detroit Red Wings defenseman, inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November, was at Joe Louis Arena on Tuesday, where he was honored before Detroit's 2-1 shootout win against the Columbus Blue Jackets in a pregame ceremony.

Lidstrom will play in the 2016 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series Alumni Game for a team of ex- Detroit players against former Colorado players Friday at Coors Field in Denver, the appetizer for the present-day Red Wings and Avalanche facing off outdoors on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, TVA Sports 2).

"I've been skating with my son's team, I'm helping out as a coach there," said Lidstrom, who moved back to his native Sweden when he retired after the 2011-12 season. "But it hasn't been all too serious, I haven't broken many sweats in the last little while."

The Red Wings and the Avalanche had the NHL's fiercest rivalry from the mid-1990s until the early 2000s. Detroit (1997, 1998, 2002) and Colorado (1996, 2001) combined to win the Stanley Cup five times in a span of seven seasons.

"It'll be fun being back on the ice again," Lidstrom said. "Especially with the guys that you played with for so long and had so much success with. Now you're older, but you're going to have just as much fun, I think."

Lidstrom's former Red Wings teammate Brendan Shanahan recently committed to playing in the game. Shanahan is the president of the Toronto Maple Leafs and, like Lidstrom, a Hockey Hall of Fame member.

Other Hall of Fame members scheduled to play for the Detroit alumni include Steve Yzerman, Larry Murphy, Chris Chelios, Igor Larionov and Dino Ciccarelli.

Hall of Fame members scheduled to play for the Avalanche alumni include Patrick Roy, Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Rob Blake and Ray Bourque.

Roy is Colorado's coach and Sakic is the Avalanche's general manager. They got in some practice for the game on the morning before Colorado defeated Detroit 3-2 in a shootout at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on Feb. 12.

"I'm about 30 pounds heavier than when I was playing," said Roy, who retired after the 2002-03 season. "I did OK with shots close in, but I was having trouble with long shots."

He said it wasn't all bad blood between the teams.

"We respected the Red Wings," Roy said. "It was a war on the ice, but a lot of respect."