Mon Feb 02, 2009 6:38 pm EST
Puck Headlines: NHL wheel of justice lands on Gauthier, Kennedy
Here are your Evening Puck Headlines: A glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.
• The NHL comes down with a couple of suspensions today. To the surprise of no one, Los Angeles Kings defenseman Denis Gauthier was suspended for five games after his head-shot against Josh Gorges of the Canadiens; Gauthier is what we like to call a "repeat offender." Meanwhile, Tyler Kennedy of the Pittsburgh Penguins gets a one-game suspension thanks to the pestering of Toronto GM Brian Burke. Evidently, Rule 70.2 of the CBA states: "A player who has entered the game on a legal line change... who starts an altercation may be subject to discipline ..." Yeah, we didn't know, either. [Kings and Penguins]
Preview: St. Louis Blues at Detroit Red Wings (7 p.m. EST; TV: VS). The Red Wings are reeling a little bit, but they're also defeated the Blues four out of the last five games. Who will be the first player to show his "V" during the broadcast? Our money's on Manny Legace.
• The Beanpot is underway! The annual college hockey tournament in Boston pits Boston University, Boston College, Harvard and Northeastern against each other on the ice and their spirited supporters in the stands. USCHO has a Beanpot blog going, Stanley Cup of Chowder offers a thorough preview while Slap Shot has some good coverage as well. Chris Drury of the New York Rangers is getting inducted into the Beanpot Hall of Fame during the tournament as a former BU star.
• Alexander Ovechkin can't really still have NCAA eligibility after signing that contract?
• Robert Lang of the Montreal Canadiens had successful surgery on his Achilles' tendon. The team says he's out indefinitely; press reports say "indefinitely" means about four months, effectively ending his season. [CBC Sports]
• You know, as original stories go, you have to hand it to the National Post: There haven't been many article written about the correlation between how angry your team mascot looks and your team's success on the ice. Blame Sparky the Dragon for the Islanders' struggles; but obviously, Sabretooth is a cuddly mascot for the Sabres. Even though he's attacked and killed at least four pee-wee players in the last two seasons. [National Post]
Preview: Calgary Flames at Colorado Avalanche (9:30 p.m. EST; TV: RSW, ALT). the Avalanche are 1-5 on their current homestand; Mile High Hockey provides an epic preview of this one, including handy ways to extinguish flames.
• As we mentioned earlier today, Chris Clark of the Washington Capitals is going under the knife and could miss the rest of the season. Coach Bruce Boudreau was very quick to mention that Clark, despite the situation, is still the team's captain. [Capitals Insider]
• Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Mike Smith is injured, and day-to-day, which means the Bolts are in Kari Ramo's hands. But can a goalie currently suspended by the AHL still play in the NHL? Bolts Report says "maybe." [Lightning Strikes]
• The delicate balancing act of the Nashville Predators' goalies, as Pekka Rinne continues to steal Dan Ellis's job while the team creeps closer to the playoffs. [Nashville City Paper]
Preview: Buffalo Sabres at Anaheim Ducks (10 p.m. EST; TV: MSG, FSPT). Anaheim could have Todd Marchant back from injury against the Sabres. Defenseman Mike Weber is up again for the Sabres, who are going to likely start Pat Lalime against Jonas Hiller tonight.
• It's a 2009 mock draft! [THN]
• Luca Sbisa is headed back the Western Hockey League from the Flyers. [CP]
• The Atlanta Thrashers' top scoring line: Ilya Kovalchuk, Rich Peverley ... Chris Thorburn?! Isn't this like Ottawa icing Heatley-Spezza-Neil? Then again, if you're Ottawa or Atlanta ... [AJC]
• Finally, Wrap Around Curl brings us this photo of actor Tim Robbins (via Jezebel) in which the man who invented the hula-hoop is one snarly Thrash fan. From Curl:
He must reallllly like hockey. Because you'd think if he was a poser, he'd pick some other team. But picking the Thrashers, that's kinda indie or punk rock. Or maybe just bizarre. Like Napoleon Dynamite levels of weird.
That said ... fly on the wall, please, for the Thrashers celebrity fan club meeting, with Tim Robbins and Lil' Jon alone in a room for three hours.
Puck Daddy
Greg Wyshynski
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64 Comments
1 - 25 of 64
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Milbury is right Hockey is full of pansies anymore. Wyshynski that stinks!
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Seriously, your love for Ovechkin stories are well beyond my love for pizza. When was the last time a day went by without you mentioning your boytoy?
There are so many interesting hockey stories to be told. There are so many players in the NHL. Maybe this should be renamed, "PuckDaddy's Ovechkin Blog and other stories from around Washington, Pittsburgh, Detroit and the NHL."
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you know, "dead man walking" and all
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That the Islanders have a Dragon as the mascot is a joke. As a cost saving move, they decided to use the same Mascot for both Nassau Colosseum teams. That means the basically defunct AFL Dragons mascot is also the mascot for the Islanders.
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2. Scary part about Sparky is I KNOW the guy who used to "play" him (as in he wore that awful suit) during games (teammate of mine on my roller league squad). He wasn't even an Isles fan!
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The Penguins should hide their heads in shame that Kennedy was the only one with the valabiks to challenge an 18 year-old-kid after a perfectly legal hit on their star player. It seems the rest of the team didn't actually care one way or the other.
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Further analysis shows this: the top nine teams in the East actually have a combined 57-42-9 record versus the West, which would indicate that those nine teams have been better than the majority of the West. Those top four west teams have a combined 28-8-4 record versus the East however, which may indicate that the top Western teams are better than the top Eastern one (the top 4 in the East are 27-16-2, though hald of those losses come from the Caps)
The West as a whole is 96-62-17 against the East (East is thus 79-81-15) this would indicate that the West is still better as a whole, though arguably the bottom five teams in the East (18-32-6 versus West) make up that difference. In other words, you can say the East's top eight will be AS good if not marginally better than the West's this year.
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and for anyone in so-cal, head to Burbank for a glimpse of Cuba Gooding Jr and others that skate on the regular....and I forget the stiffs name (90210 fool), but man did I drill his sorry @ss into the boards
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But suspendin the kid.............that stinks!
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Glad Gauthier got some games, but it should have been higher - that was a nasty headshot on Gorges. Steve Downie-nasty.
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This inky bird-cage-liner has all the credibility of Michael Jackson claiming to have got good wood for a 35-year-old woman; of Sean Avery leading a sensitivity-training seminar; of (Holy spanking!!!) Jeremy Roenick preaching that "silence is golden". I am shocked the article did not feature a single reference to the unfair tax-burden mascots are suffering from, to Barbara Amiel's grace, wisdom and charm and to the general levels of decadence that western society has sunk to despite the best efforts of Lightning mascot Power-Outage, Leafs' mascot You-Suck, and Oupi or You-pee or Whoopee or whateverthe**** that thing is the Canadiens bought as-is-where-is at the Expos' garage-sale. On the bright side, at least National Post ubergruppenfuhrer Conrad Black has seemed to settle in well in the US prison system where he is reportedly teaching his other more pedestrian and plebeian co-tenants English, History and Bellicose Pompous Verbosity to great effect. On the even brighter side, his appeal to George Dubya for a last-minute Presidential pardon was returned unopened like a spurned lover's Valentine's card. As far as totally awesomely scary mascots go the National Post's own mascot, the pneumatically-enhanced lipo-ed and botox-ed social-skeleton Babs Amiel, should be able to scare a team and its entire fan-base into a championship ... or at least into a vomatorium. One more face-lift on Babs and she'll have a beard.
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1 - 25 of 64