Needle in a Haystack

Holden: If the buzz is any indicator, that movie's gonna make some huge bank.

Jay: What buzz?

Holden: The Internet buzz.

Jay: What the fuck is the Internet?

Who knew there were so many hockey blogs out there? No matter everyone has a take and potentially a home team to blog about.

I found an amazing listing of hockey blogs here: james mirtle: The Hockey Blogs.

If you're looking for a certain team or lots of random hockey stuff check out the list. With luck and a bit of elbow grease I'll make the list sometime soon.

Bluechip Prospect joins Desert Dogs

BC boy Kyle Turris, is making his way to the big league.

The 18-year-old signed an entry-level contract and is headed to join the Coyotes to play out the final games of the regular season.

"We are very excited to sign Kyle and have him join the Coyotes organization," said Coyotes General Manager Don Maloney in a statement. "He is a very talented player and is a big part of our future. By adding him to the roster, we hope to give him valuable experience that will help him heading into next season and beyond."

The 3rd overall pick in the 2007 NHL entry draft adds more talent to Gretzky's youthful squad.

Turris stands as the highest ever drafted Tier II Junior "A" player since the level's inception by the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association in 1970.

The future looks bright for the Phoenix Coyotes, but will they be able to compete in a highly competitive Western Conference.

Canucks Douse Flames 6-2

I've been waiting all day to write this post. I was at the Foo Fighters concert last night, (which was awesome by the way) so I didn't get to watch the game live. However, I did PVR it. Man, am I glad I did. What a great game to watch.

Why can't we see an effort like that every night?

The Canucks Doused the Flames 6-2. Couldn't they have spread around the scoring a little bit? We could use some of those goals in the next few games...

Last night was a solid 40 minute game from every player on our squad. The first period was iffy. We were lucky to get out of it tied, but in the end I got to see some flashes of brilliance from our veteran leaders.

Last night Naslund played like a captain. He lead by example, he threw hits, hustled, and backchecked hard. He showed a level of determination and fire that I didn't think he had anymore. I want to see more. He was like the Naslund of old, but much more defensively responsible. To me, his goal at the end of the first sparked the team. Naslund was hungry for the net and dove to stuff that puck in as everybody crashed the net. That's the kind of goal you want your captain to score. It let them go into the intermission tied and not down. They were allowed to start fresh. My favourite Naslund moment last night was when Lombardi had a break to the net and Naslund backchecked and caught up to him and stripped him of the puck. There's very few people with the wheels to keep up with Lombardi, but Naslund did somehow.

Trevor Linden. Need I say more? He was fabulous. If he had gotten the hat trick the roof would have blown off GM place. The first goal was all patience and poise. Also it all happened because of an unbelievable play made by Ritchie to get him the puck, as he knocked the puck out of the air and laid a sneaky saucer pass right on Linden's stick. His second goal was just good positioning. Linden still and always will be my favourite Canuck.

I could rave on and on but my hat goes off to the entire team. Lou played great. Isbister, Pettinger, Cowan, all the role players played hard and battled like a hungry team. They got under Iginla's skin and capitalized on a Flames team that was down two key centers, Langkow and Conroy.

It's encouraging to see an effort put forth by your home team like that. But can we expect to see this on a regular basis? With Nashville losing to Detroit last night destiny is back in our hands. We need to run the table. Win and we're in.

I swear it's like they read my previous post and decided to prove me wrong. For the record, I'd be okay with that. I'm expecting good things. Hell I'm going to the game on Thursday, I better see good things. A Linden hat trick would make me happy.

In case you missed the game. Which was a hell of game, here are the highlights:

87 vs. 8 - Keep your Fingers Crossed

Sid the Kid lead his team to victory and 1st place in the Eastern Conference after a 3-1 win over the Rangers today. Lets face it, the NHL needs this badly. They need a team like Pittsburgh to go far in the playoffs to peak any interest in major US networks. They need a face like Sidney to represent the league. He's charismatic, well spoken, and a game breaker. What could be better than a lengthy Pittsburgh run in the playoffs?

How about a Pittsburgh vs. Washington showdown?

Ovechkin vs. Crosby. Imagine the former Hart trophy winner vs. this years potential Hart trophy winner. For a hockey journalist it would be like Christmas Day in the middle of April.

One can only hope.

If the league is to become successful in the USA they need to hype up the drama and stories behind each game. They need to intensify the rivalries with their epic NBC style pregame montages. This potentially could be that series to get it all started again.

Washington is still 2 points back of Boston and Boston has a game in hand. The Sabres need to do Washington a favour if they want to have any chance of making the playoffs. I've got my fingers crossed. Do you?

A Class Above the Rest

Minnesota Wild defenceman Kurtis Foster is expecting a new contract offer. That would have been a sure thing about 2 weeks ago. Except now it's kind of unexpected.

On March 19th, Foster suffered a broken femur while hustling back for an icing call. It's a potential career threatening injury. The Wild are unsure if Foster will ever play in the NHL again but are proceeding to offer him a contract.

"I don't have to qualify him [to retain his rights], but I will," Wild GM Doug Risebrough told the Star-Tribune. "It's a bad message not to do that. He's a good player. He needs a motivation [to rehab], and he doesn't need that stress in his life."

The Wild will offer Foster a one-year, $1.025 million contract before the June 25 deadline, which insurance would not have covered according to Wild assistant general manager Tom Lynn.

That's a classy move by the organization. There are many other teams out there that would have not re-qualified him as an RFA. I'm impressed and it shows that they really care about the individuals there. It isn't necessarily the smartest business move for them, but it goes to show that this corporation has a heart

The Downward Spiral that is the Vancouver Canucks

It's been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs this season for the Vancouver Canucks. This stretch run of a four game losing streak could not come at a worse time. How did we get here?

The glaring holes in our defense has been made very apparent recently, as our division rivals are all gunning for the playoffs playing their best hockey of the year.

And why do we have these holes you ask? In Mirtle's blog he once posted about the amount of man games lost to injury, that's a pretty good answer in this case. I don't have the total numbers but I believe within the Northwest Division we have the most injuries on the blue line. We lost Salo and Bieksa early in the season, but we rallied from that and arguably played our best stretch of hockey in November.

Then we got Salo back and lost him again. He came back later and has his flashes of brilliance every so often, but I don't think we've seen a comfortable 100% injury free Salo this season.

Then we lost Krajicek.

Then we lost Mitchell for an extended period.

Then we lost Ohlund for the rest of the season.

I think you see the trend. On the bright side, we've seen the rise of Alex Edler, albeit lately I think the huge minutes are starting to wear on him.

So defensive woes are apparent. We also have offensive woes, rather than offensive "whoas" as well.

We lost Morrison earlier in the season to a wrist injury. Then we got him back, and our offense looked somewhat stabilized.

Then guess what happened? Torn ACL.

Our Iron Man ain't so iron no more.

We saw the rise of a promising young Mason Raymond as well. He's on the shelf too after a knee on knee against a Phoenix Coyotes player.

So to recap injuries have plagued us. But as many hockey teams state that is no excuse, and it really isn't. It's disappointing but as a fan I wouldn't care so much if I saw some more effort.

But lately it's like the Canucks are bipolar. They're as wishy washy as most of the bandwagon jumping fans here in Vancouver.

As Naslund likes to say, "choked". Yup. We're choking down the stretch. A week ago we were in contention for the Division title. Now we're in danger of missing the playoffs. We're tied with Nashville today with 86 points, but by virtue of the tie breaker they're in 8th. So with five games left, we don't even control our own destiny.

If they run the table they're in. If we run the table, we have to hope that someone comes along and plays spoiler.

Even if we make the playoffs we're squeaking in by the skin of our teeth. Then what? Bounced in the first round?

With the effort we've seen lately... absolutely. Remember last year?



I'm a Canucks fan through and through, but I'm also a hockey fan. And as a hockey fan, I don't want to see us make the playoffs because we don't deserve to make the playoffs. There are no more excuses to be made. I see it in the players and it's sad, they look defeated.

My mom once said that GM Place is cursed because it has bad Feng Shui. I think I'm starting to believe her.

But I don't want to end on a downer. So lets look at the positives.

We have a big off season ahead of us. Nonis has a lot of work to do. I'll touch more on this in a future post.

For the most part, I applaud Dave Nonis for the way he's handled the team this year. He couldn't have predicted the injury plague we've been hit with. He really should have addressed some of the secondary scoring issues last year, but his hands were tied a bit with the cap space and he wanted to leave room for the deadline.

I'm also extremely happy we didn't sell the farm for a Brad Richards at the deadline. For those of you who knock Nonis for having no balls, the ballsiest move he made at the deadline was doing nothing.

Where we need to improve is in our scouting. We need to draft better. I can't state this enough.
In the last few years we've found a few gems in the 2nd rounds or later, but we've also passed on some serious talent in our draft history. In this era of the NHL you need youth to chip in at a lower salary range if you want a chance to win a Stanley Cup.

I look forward to the off season for a chance to refresh our team and really prove to Luongo and our other heart and soul players that we are committed to winning. This year had its lowlights but also some highlights as well.

Our youth is on the rise. We finally have some talent in the system which we shouldn't rush. Let them develop properly. Do you want to turn out like the Toronto Maple Leafs?

The rise of the youth on this team is encouraging. Kesler, Burrows, Edler, Raymond and Shannon will start to shift towards the core of the team. Our current core players will add veteran experience.

It's been a doozy of a post. My boss at work told me that the other posts were short. So K, here you go it's a longer one for you.

The Standings

ESPN has a cool new widget here.

Around the League in 80 seconds

First of all congratulations are in order to Roberto Luongo. He is the proud father of a baby girl, Gabriella Luongo. It's a joyous occasion for the Luongo family so my best wishes go out to all of you.

Luongo is quite the trooper, he's racked up some serious frequent flier miles in the last few days. He took a red eye from Colorado to Florida. Made it there for the birth of his baby daughter and was off to Minnesota the next day to make the start earlier tonight. Too bad the end result wasn't great but I'm not going to blame him for the loss. We'll leave that for a future posting...

Next up, we have the never ending Bertuzzi/Moore saga continues.

It takes a twist today however, Mark Crawford has now been named in the lawsuit.

Bertuzzi sought to have Crawford included based on the claim that his NHL contract compelled him take orders from his coach.

"It was a term and condition of Bertuzzi's employment with the Vancouver hockey club that he was to take direction from Crawford in all matters related to his role or function as a player," court documents state.

After this I have no doubt in my mind that Bertuzzi and Crow will now continue their hate-hate relationship. Old habits die hard.Frankly, I'm sick of it. Sort it out amongst yourselves, I don't want to hear about it anymore. You're all to blame. To quote Newton, "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction".Moore shouldn't have taken a run at Naslund. Moore should have just simply fought Bertuzzi that night and gotten it over with. Bertuzzi was equally responsible for stalking Moore and Crawford is claimed by a few to have told his troops to make Moore "pay the price".

Bertuzzi has filed a "cross claim" that if legal damages in the $37 million civil suit are awarded, the Canucks should have to pay, the Toronto Star reports. The team, meanwhile, has filed a similar suit against Bertuzzi.

This lawsuit is like the freakin' energizer bunny. They need to settle it. I'm sure there's nothing the NHL would like better than to sweep this scandal under the rug. The game has enough image issues in the US, and I'm sure the Chris Simon incidents didn't help this year either. It's pretty much a PR nightmare.

Next.

Torts named US National team coach.

Good for him. I'm not really a big fan of his but you can't really knock a Stanley Cup winning coach too much I guess. However, he's the winningest American born NHL coach, so it only really makes sense.

If there's a goalie controversy to be had this spring on team USA expect old Johnny boy here to be stirring it up.

To me he's like the American version of Mike Keenan. Come to think of it, if his hair thins out more he really would look like Keenan. They have the same iron fist mentality that doesn't always bode well with his players. They have a winning reputation that slowly erodes and then slaps them with a "reputation". We'll see if Torts lasts another season in Tampa.

So that effectively rounds up the news to share with you. I was ultra disappointed with the Canucks game again (hmmmm...... deja vu) as it's definitely coming unraveled here in Vancity. I'll touch more on that this weekend.

Hopefully it only took you 80 seconds to read this otherwise my clever blog title is not so clever or relevant for that matter. So as Billy Madison says to the fat kid in Mrs. Vaughn's class... "Tuh-Tuh-Today Junior!"

Tribute to Jarkko Ruutu: My Top 10 favourite Ruutu moments!

Well one of my favourite former Canucks had a big night. A goal and 2 assists. Not bad, not bad at all. I'm sure he's one of the most annoying guys to play against. After all he's always got that smirk on his face sticking out his tongue.

Gotta love the Finnish grit.

They're really like the toughest Europeans. I'm sure he grew up idolizing Essa Tikkanen. For all the skill the Swedes have the Finns have grit and toughness. Ruutu is a fan favourite wherever he goes. He's the player you hate but would love to have on your team.

Ruutu's Career NHL totals:

414 Games
35 Goals
45 Assists
80 Points
and drum roll please...
a whopping 702 Penalty minutes.

So without further ado here are my top 10 Favourite Jarkko Ruutu Moments:




Ruutu handles Rob Blake really well considering he would be fighting outside his weight class.




Ruutu drops F-bombs on the TSN broadcast. He leans over the suicide box in between the benches where Pierre Macguire sits and beaks off at the Montreal bench. They have to kill Pierre's microphone during the play by play because of Ruutu. Priceless.






Jarkko Ruutu outsmarts Dion Phaneuf. He checks him hard pushes his buttons gets him to drop the gloves and slew foots him. Then saunters off to the bench. Brilliant.

Ruutu rocks the "Finnglish" as he throws haymakers against Ben Ondrus. Good solid fight. Shows he dish it out pretty good and is not just a "cheap shot artist".







Ruutu goes toe to toe with Darcy Tucker. Note the Punch counter.






One of his 2 staple shootout moves. Except this one is done on the most exciting play in the game. A penalty shot.





Here's his other shootout move. The slowmotion one hander.







Here's his first shootout move at full speed going top-shelf - where Mama hides the cookie jar!





Ruutu serves up the Subway sandwich of the game. Eat your heart out Jared!







And finally Ruutu has his own theme song. It really doesn't get much better than that.





So number 37 left quite an impression on me. He was a fun player to watch and cheer for. We even made up a game, which was really Marco Polo replaced by the words Jarkko Ruutu. One group of fans would call out "Jarkko" when he laid out a hit and the other fans would reply "Ruutu". Ahhh... the fond memories of a previous Canuck.

Give the Jack Adams to Jules Winfield

I'm hear all this stuff about old time hockey, and how this new NHL is nothing like how the game used to be played. So they really must mean hockey the Samuel L. Jackson way.

I'd love to see Ron Maclean add him to the Think Hockey segments. Imagine Samuel L. Jackson showing Ron and kids the "gourmet shot", "inglewood jack" and teaching them to be bad mother@#$%ers.

Could Edmonton be the next Gotham City?

Mirtle posted some funny stuff about Daryl Katz in the past.


For those who don't know, Daryl Katz is the soon to be owner of the Edmonton Oilers.

Daryl A. Katz (b. 1962) is chairman and chief executive officer of The Katz Group, one of North America's leading drug store operators with over 1,800 stores and owns and operates Canada's only national mail order pharmacy business, Meditrust Pharmacy Inc., one of Canada's largest institutional pharmacy operations. Katz is a former lawyer. He currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta.

He's really rich (worth 2.37 Billion), he's Canadian and he's also being compared to Batman.

Daryl Katz, the new Oilers owner, is being compared to Batman - or more pointedly Batman's alter ego, Bruce Wayne - for a lot of reasons: he's wealthy, he's a philanthropist, he keeps to himself and he lives in a cave.

Which begs the real question for me. If Daryl Katz is Batman... who is Robin?

I don't know.

Who cares.

All I know is that Gary Bettman is my candidate for the Penguin. I mean the likeness is uncanny:

VS.

On another Edmonton note. A committee seems to approve of the idea for a new arena downtown.

It would be an 18,000 seat 450 Million dollar arena. That's great but once again I'll ask the difficult question: Is this really going to make the wives like living in Edmonton any better? The committee better ask Pronger's better half first.

The Crosscheck that broke Savard's Back

Boston, MA (Sports Network) - Boston Bruins leading scorer Marc Savard suffered a broken bone in his back after being cross-checked by Canadiens forward Steve Begin in Boston 3-2 loss Saturday in Montreal.

Ouch. I hope Savard bounces back and recovers from this next season. He's really come into his own in the league these last few years and has been one of the few free agents to live up to a big money contract. There were a lot of doubters after he left Atlanta saying that he only benefited from playing with Hossa and Kovalchuk. However, he's proved them wrong and showed that he can perform as a key player for the Bruins.

However, this is a crushing blow to Boston's playoff chances as Savard is their leading scorer and they've been slumping as of late going 3-4-3 down the stretch, while Washington is surging and nips at their heels only 2 points behind for 8th spot with a game in hand.

It's down to the wire. Gut check time. Fill in your sports cliche ___________________.

Pens Clinch Playoff Berth

With 5 games to go in the season. The Pittsburgh Penguins have clinched a playoff spot and potentially their division title as well. They're 4 points up on the Devils after a 2-0 win Tuesday night.

No need to rush Sid the Kid back into the lineup after he's been nursing the ankle injury. (Which really sucks for my hockey pool. I lucked out with the number 1 pick but Sidney sidelined seems to have dropped me out of top 3 contention.)

The Pens will be a force to be reckoned with in the playoffs this year. With all the firepower they have adding Marian Hossa to the lineup, the team can ice a deadly combination of scorers and game breakers. The only knock on them would be consistent goaltending, but Conklin and Fleury have both played fairly well down the stretch. They'll win if their philosophy is score more one more goal then the other team. They gave up a lot of good young players for Hossa and Dupuis, but it could be all worth it if they go all the way this year. They're going to have quite the conundrum trying to sign Malkin this summer to an extension and keeping their other key players together, most notably Ryan Malone, Brooks Orpik and also getting Jordan Staal under contract as well. They have a total of 15 UFA's next year. Could they run into Tampa Bay Lightning syndrome? It'll be tough but I'm sure it's a problem every GM in the NHL would love to have.

All I know is that I'll have a lot of fun watching this team in the playoffs this spring.

Baby Goalie on the Way?

Seems that Luongo is expecting a baby goalie soon. Real soon. So soon that he may be missing at least a game down the regular season stretch. An important one at that. The division is deadlocked and it comes back down to these final stretch of games. However, Luongo's wife is due at the beginning of April.

The Canucks have a plan in place when the call comes that Luongo is about to become a father when his wife, Gina, gives birth back in Florida to a girl.

That plan is Curtis Sanford. Should be interesting. Luongo should be with his wife for the birth of his first child, it doesn't matter how much he's getting paid, but what do you think?

Senators Owner Melnyk Charged with Accounting Fraud

Well the Senators are back in the headlines again. As if there weren't already enough blackmarks on the Senator's season already with the inconsistent play, Ray Emery issues and firing of John Paddock. Seems like it all stems from the top down:

TORONTO - Canadian and U.S. regulators slapped Biovail Corp. founder Eugene Melnyk and three company executives with charges of accounting fraud, saying they misled investors about the pharmaceutical company's financial results.

Read the Vancouver Province article here.

Well good luck Eugene, you and your team need it.

Son of a... Roy! Goalie attacks unwilling combatant

Jonathan Roy, Son of Patrick Roy showed he can hang with the Goalie tough-guys like Ron Hextall, Ray Emery and Dan Cloutier after a Saturday night QMJHL game.

Regardless, everyone loves a good goalie fight.

A scrum immediately ensued and gloves quickly flew, with all 10 skaters on the ice eventually pairing off. As they fought, Jonathan Roy skated to centre ice and appeared to challenge Chicoutimi goalie Bobby Nadeau to a fight.

Officials prevented him from skating down but they eventually left him to deal with other fights, freeing Roy to skate to the other end of the ice and jump Nadeau, rip his mask off and begin pounding him.

Nadeau fell to the ice and curled up to protect himself as Roy kept punching him.

Once he was done beating on his opponent, Roy scowled at the crowd as he skated away and flipped the Centre Georges-Vezina crowd a couple of middle-finger gestures. Chicoutimi defenceman Sebastien Rioux then jumped Roy and another fight ensued.

Roy was assessed two fighting majors, a minor and two game misconducts while Nadeau was unpenalized. The teams combined for 120 minutes in penalties in all.

I caught wind of this off Mirtle's blog. Here's the video, pardon the french:



UPDATE:

The suspensions got handed down. Jonathan Roy got 7 games and his dad Patrick got 5 more.

Some say they should be suspended longer.

and here's more on the relationship between the rival team's owner, Montreal Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau and Patrick Roy.

The real question is would this even be a big deal if the Roy's weren't involved?

Jim Hughson working overtime... and Willie Mitchell Look-a-like Contest

Jimmy sure had some extra work to do this weekend...

On March 22, 2008, Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson will call the NHL game between the Edmonton Oilers and the Colorado Avalanche at 1 p.m. MDT. Hughson and Simpson will then board a chartered plane to Calgary where the pair will then announce the third game of the Hockey Night in Canada triple-header between the Calgary Flames and the Minnesota Wild at 8 p.m. MDT. This is believed to be a first in National Hockey League.

He's a pro and one of the best play by play men in the game. He also actually pronounces names properly unlike his Eastern counterpart. It's nice to have a broadcaster not mispronounce "Bieksa" and "Sedin".

He had a very memorable analogy during the Minnesota/Vancouver game on Friday referring to the amount of traffic in front of the goal tenders.

"Both nets are like the Peace Arch Border Crossing this Easter Weekend"

Good Call Jim. Glad I wasn't stuck in that traffic. Congratulations on your contract extension. Glad to see the future of Hockey Night in Canada will be called by you.

P.S. My buddy the Willie Mitchell look-a-like contest winner, Paul was furious over the suspect and inconsistent officiating during the Friday Canucks game... he's told me to mention it.

But anyway he really does look like Willie. See for yourself:

VS.

Canucks Dismantle Oil in a Textbook Roadgame

It was a real solid effort from the Canucks last night. I was proud to watch the team play with some poise for a change. Here's my laundry list from the game:

• Luongo - enough said. He's back in form and was amazing last night.

• Daniel, Kesler and Burrows are looking mighty dangerous and were by far the best line last night. Nice to see Daniel bump the scoring slump, even if it was a Tom Gilbert own goal.
  

• Mike Weaver had a really strong game doing all the little things well. He's a great depth defensemen for us and I admire how tough he plays for his size.
  

• Matt Pettinger's goal was awesome. He's making a good impact for the short time he's been here. Great wheels, offensive upside and finishes his checks.
  

• The Ryan Shannon/Taylor Pyatt rush was a great goal as well. Nice to see a speedier version of the Canucks with some of these young guys in there. Pyatt's back in the groove and hopefully continues his goal scoring streak tonight against Minnesota

• My favourite part of the night: Trevor Linden's short handed goal. The old man still has a scoring touch. We were in danger of letting the oil back into it but that marker sealed their fate as well as their playoff hopes. Vigneault better play Linden more down the stretch as this is his time of year. I've been pretty upset over Linden's playing time over the course of the season. No wonder he has a little bit of rust he only plays 4-5 minutes a game or sits in the press box while Brad Isbisiter takes his spot. Linden has far more to contribute to the team as a leader, penalty killer and shootout participant. Hmmm... how many times have we gone to a shootout this year? Don't forget what he can bring in the playoffs as well. He has 124 Playoff games and 99 Playoff points. Don't forget he was our leading scorer in the post season last year as well. Don't forget "the speech" as well:

Trevor Linden, who brings experience and wisdom to the Canuck dressing room, was responsible for a pre-game speech that sparked Vancouver and is thought to have led to the explosive first period that was witnessed on Saturday afternoon. Linden reportedly closed the locker room doors before the game, locking himself inside only with his teammates, and spoke to his team. The details of the speech have not, and will, not be shared publicly however the affect it had on every Canuck was, and is, evident.

"One of the reasons Trevor was back this year was his leadership qualities that he brings. He's the type of player that doesn't need a letter on his sweater to lead; he does it by example and sometimes, when he feels the need, he can do it vocally," said Coach Alain Vigneault who was not surprised by Linden's initiative on Saturday.

"We knew we were going to get a good quality person to help out our players, especially our young players as a great example, and he's been that throughout the year whether he has played or not and that's what we knew what we were going to get and obviously he's been giving us that since day one."

Now with that said. Vigneaut play him more we need him.

and if you missed last night's game here's the highlights:

Who's gonna win the Northwest Division title?

With the season only a few weeks away, winning your division is the only way to ensure home ice advantage and a guaranteed playoff spot. The Northwest division is by far the toughest.

Time to see what all of you think:

Nucks vs. Oil a doozy in the making?

I'm seriously looking forward to the upcoming Vancouver Edmonton tilt tonight. Last time these two teams met it was literally the most entertaining game of the season. Lots of fireworks, line brawls, and a playoff-esque level of intensity during that magical game. Even Naslund and Hemsky were throwing hits.

The rivalry should be renewed especially with Edmonton on a tear as of late winning their last 10 of 12 grasping at the hope of the final playoff spot. It should be a doozy. I expect a great game with both teams facing off against each other twice over the next week.

It's a long weekend guys... entertain me.

"The last meeting between the clubs, Feb. 16 on Hockey Night in Canada, was a fight-filled affair with nearly 200 penalty minutes."

As a reminder... here's the end of last game:

Alexander the Great hits the century mark... 60 goals around the corner

Ovechkin continues on a tear. 58 goals and 102 points.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we'll be seeing our first 60 goal scorer since Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1995-1996 season with 69 goals. That's quite a feat in this day's version of the NHL. Bure came close in 2000-01 and the Cheechoo train had 56 in 05-06 playing like everyday was christmas day with a freshly acquired Joe Thornton serving him up gift after gift. Needless to say he rode that year to a long term contract, but i digress.

An assist and an empty netter makes him the Art Ross leader, and a definite hart trophy candidate leading his team to within 2 points of 8th place in the eastern conference. It's great to see a pure goal scorer with the passion that Ovechkin brings to the game. There's no doubt we'll be seeing legions of kids wearing red #8 jerseys for years to come.