Thrashing successfully administered by the Canucks. Dallas is next on the agenda.
Kestler is playing like a man possessed. If that line he centers winds up with Tambellini and Raymond (along with Kestler), it may just be the fastest line in the NHL. And that would be the 2nd line to the Sedin twins and Burrows. This team is starting to look scary.
So Maxim "Tete a claques" Lapierre is now an Anaheim "Mighty" Duck. He can now play out his career as a fully-fledged cartoon character.
yea, in Mont real he was only half-fledged. Like a duckling rather than a duck. lol.
I'm ambivalent about fighting in hockey, but this picture showed up as the "Photo of the Day" on the Slam Sports Hockey page today...and well, it shows Chris Neil having his facial features rearranged.
Fighting in hockey drives away many prospective fans, thugifies the game and compels good teams to recruit goons for success, results in serious injuries, makes ice hockey an object of derision and contempt, provides a platform from which trained seals like Don Cherry can function as cheerleaders for more general war-mongering and violence by our country abroad, provides a despicable example for children to emulate (in which violence as a means of resolving disputes is considered respectable), and debases our culture in general.
Other than that, it's fine.
Big money sports will always have that element of supercompetitiveness I think. I think the gladiator element might go away somewhat if they were to pay them a blue collar wage, like it was in the old days. I think some guys fit the goon role because the option is there for them, and it's not a bad income at the same time. Some of those guys would be better suited to more traditional work, like iron working and steel erecting, and generally working with their backs a little more instead of their fists.
The Swedish juniors looked like four Soviet K-L-M lines out there against Cameron's Canadians who appeared to be lost without Schwartz and Kassian. Relentless skaters the Swedes.
The fighting also functions as a way for the players to "resolve" things such as dirty hits or what is seen by them as unsportsmanlike play. This is the mentality of individually resolving conflicts instead of having proper policing of the game. This is part of what I mean by thugifying the game.
I once had dinner with a famous - now deceased - Canadian sculptor during which he pointed out that when he played Junior hockey the police would throw the players in jail for fighting. I like that practice.
The whole rotten culture has to change, of course. Fighting is simply the ugly pinnacle of hockey thugishness.
Big money sports will always have that element of supercompetitiveness I think. I think the gladiator element might go away somewhat if they were to pay them a blue collar wage, like it was in the old days. I think some guys fit the goon role because the option is there for them, and it's not a bad income at the same time. Some of those guys would be better suited to more traditional work, like iron working and steel erecting, and generally working with their backs a little more instead of their fists.
I agree; back when I worked as a welder, I participated in a line brawl in Senior hockey, where we were all playing just for fun, not money.
Wait a minute...
Just be glad you were trading knuckle sandwiches with Joe the welder and not Stu Grimson or Stan Jonathan back then. ;-
Whatever. We had to contend with guys like "Magilla" McDonnell.
Scary. You couldn't pay me enough in apres pickup beers to step on the ice with that guy.
I think Canada should come back with Olivier Roy against the US tonight. Visentin seems even more suspect.
On the bright side, our goalie, whoever he is, ought to be due for a good game soon.
Visentin had a good game, and everyone else...well, it looked like men against boys last night. The yankos weren't ever in the game.
Let's hope our boys can keep it up against the Russkies.
I'd like it to be a little lesss close then the last Canada Russia game.
The Canucks are top of the league so of course you're talking about the world juniors. (Oh my god ... what's happening to me ... can one become a hockey fan through osmosis or something?)
Huh? I can't speak for anyone else, but the World Juniors are my favourite part of hockey season.
What's the reason for Vancouver fans being so insecure and defensive? We're talking about something else, so this must be a slight towards the Canucks?
I guess the insecurity and defensiveness of Canucks fans is also passed on. Me ... I used to be a Vancouver Giants fan.
After the first period the TSN announcer said "It's 2-1 for Canada in this red and white cauldron." I don't know if bringing up the cauldron, or "Der Kessel," is such a good idea when there's a Zaitsev on the other team.
Anyway, two Saskatoon boys figured in on both goals so far: Schenn, who's from the Redwing zone, and Ashton, who was a Flyer in minor hockey here.
Ouch.
I believe that's pronounced "Шайбу."
Our guys will prolly be hearing the song of the Volga over and over in their minds as they pull back from Buffalo.
I think Canada should come back with Olivier Roy against the US tonight. Visentin seems even more suspect
I thought Roy looked shaky in the shootout vs the Swedes. Then again he got them to shootouts against a Swedish team that was near perfect in shootouts.
Interesting that the Russians changed goalies in the game but Canada stuck with Visentin as the game went south (or should that be East). The second Russian goal was a weak one. We can't hang this loss on Visentin though. The whole Canadian team played sub-par in the third period.
Actually, they played over par. Sub-par is a good thing in golf.
They went completely against their game in the third. I can't explain it. They stopped getting the puck in deep and forechecking, which was their meat-and-potatoes throughout the tournament.
I know it's making excuses, and that both teams had to contend with the same conditions, but there was water all over the ice at the start of the third. The Canadians were having lots of trouble with pucks sticking to the ice. Could that have been the catalyst for the meltdown?
Nice pun.
A newly formed Vancouver-based group is challenging Don Cherry to a debate on Coach's Corner to offset criticism that the fiery commentator is using Hockey Night in Canada to promote militarism and the war in Afghanistan.
Hockey Fans for Peace plans to rally outside the HNIC broadcast of Saturday night's Vancouver Canucks game against the Detroit Red Wings at Rogers Arena in Vancouver to make the point that hockey fans have the democratic right to speak out against the war in Afghanistan.
Spokesman Kimball Cariou said Wednesday the group is calling on the CBC "to either stop the promotion of militarism during hockey broadcasts, or else to allow one of its members to debate Cherry during an upcoming Coach's Corner."
[url=http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Hockey+group+challenge+Cherry+stan...
An unruly Team Russia was booted from a flight at the Buffalo airport Thursday morning while trying to get home after winning the gold at the world junior hockey championship the previous night.
Airport spokesman C. Douglas Hartmayer says all 32 or so members of the Russian contingent were asked to get off a Delta flight headed to Atlanta after boarding for takeoff.
Hartmayer said the group left the terminal but he didn't know where they went.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2011/01/06/sp-russians-plane.html#ixzz1AHHIw4mW
A newly formed Vancouver-based group is challenging Don Cherry to a debate on Coach's Corner to offset criticism that the fiery commentator is using Hockey Night in Canada to promote militarism and the war in Afghanistan.
Hockey Fans for Peace plans to rally outside the HNIC broadcast of Saturday night's Vancouver Canucks game against the Detroit Red Wings at Rogers Arena in Vancouver to make the point that hockey fans have the democratic right to speak out against the war in Afghanistan.
Spokesman Kimball Cariou said Wednesday the group is calling on the CBC "to either stop the promotion of militarism during hockey broadcasts, or else to allow one of its members to debate Cherry during an upcoming Coach's Corner."
[url=http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Hockey+group+challenge+Cherry+stan...
Being a hockey fan that opposes the war,(and is an unapologetic left wing pinko liberal)I think this is fantastic.
In the past I was crucified for calling Cherry a certain name...Was I really that wrong after all?
But CBC will ignore us and Cherry will continue to have a soap box that has no place on HNIC.
Actually this group shouldn't highlight the war per se....That's why the idiots at CBC can spin the group as not being tolerant of soldiers.
What the group SHOULD say is that they are tired of Cherry's constant 'left wing kooks' rants...I wonder how the CBC would defend that seeing that it alienates a large portion of Canadians--INCLUDING those who are hockey fans.
I also wonder how the CBC would handle someone who regularly goes on about 'right wing POS',makes anti-Harper statements and is an unapologetic critic of the war.
I'll put a month's wages that the CBC would NOT dismiss that as someone's 'right to an opinion'
This is why I watch all my hockey on RDS,TSN and NBC.
I don't really mind Cherry's calling us "leftwing pinkos," as I find it somewhat endearing. At least he uses simple, honest direct language, which cannot be said for a lot of TSN and SportsNet announcers. I do object, however, to his warhawking in what's supposed to be a hockey broadcast.
That's the point al-Q.
When I'm watching sports I'm not interested in hearing about politics--of any brand.
Atleast TSN et al keep the topic on sports.
As for Cherry,he's an old dog who should've been put down years ago.
Advocating the murder of old folks, eh?
As for Cherry and politics, he's at least one voice on the air that questions the playing of national anthems before sporting events. I've never heard anyone anywhere do that. I know I could do without some meaningless display of patriotism as a prologue to athletic competition.
No,I'm not advocating the murder of anyone...I'll let the Tories take care of that.
There's nothing endearing about Don Cherry...He's a loud mouth,a bigot and an asshole.
But I'd like to find a quote of Don Cherry advocating the abolishment of the national anthem before hockey games...That seems to be a huge contradiction to Cherry's politics.
There's nothing endearing about Don Cherry...He's a loud mouth,a bigot and an asshole.
And those are his good points.
But I'd like to find a quote of Don Cherry advocating the abolishment of the national anthem before hockey games...That seems to be a huge contradiction to Cherry's politics.
Ah, but the world is full of such mystifying complexities.
What I've noticed at shinny lately is how hard a time people seem to have in passing the puck backwards.
it's like 9 times out of 10 the person will try to score through the 3 people between them and the net rather than pass back to the open man with a clear angle.
Is it just hard for the human brain to conceptualize the possibility of indirect routes carrying a greater potential for success?
The Russians are leaving! The Russians are leaving!
One day after being removed from their flight, Russia's junior men's hockey team arrived Friday at Buffalo Niagara International Airport just after 7 a.m. ET in a jovial mood and eager to return home.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2011/01/07/sp-wjhc-russia-plane.html#ixzz1AMFxlRRb
Habs 3-2 over les bruins de Boston. Habs were flat for nearly 58 minutes and still managed to pull it off in OT, by gum. And Pacioretty deserves two in the box for having a fake Italian name.
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So back before the final in the World Juniors, we snapped up some tickets for tomorrow night's Blades-Wheaties game, thinking that this might be our last chance to see Brayden Schenn play here (we've seen him a few times already, mind you). Then we heard after the last game that he has a separated shoulder and will be out a few weeks, so he wouldn't be in Brandon's lineup for tomorrow's game.
Today he was traded to the Blades.
Komisarek accused of punching woman in nightclub
According to TMZ, the LAPD said the 28-year-old defenceman was named in a police report filed by a woman who claims Komisarek decided to lift her up in the air at the club. TMZ says the woman claims she demanded Komisarek put her down, but he refused so she slapped him in the face. Then, according to the website, Komisarek immediately put her down and punched her in the face, causing her to bleed.
This is great news. I hope they throw the book at him. Heck, throw the whole library. I doubt if he has to clear waivers if he gets sent down to the slammer.
Komisarek accused of punching woman in nightclub
According to TMZ, the LAPD said the 28-year-old defenceman was named in a police report filed by a woman who claims Komisarek decided to lift her up in the air at the club. TMZ says the woman claims she demanded Komisarek put her down, but he refused so she slapped him in the face. Then, according to the website, Komisarek immediately put her down and punched her in the face, causing her to bleed.
This is great news. I hope they throw the book at him. Heck, throw the whole library. I doubt if he has to clear waivers if he gets sent down to the slammer.
I don't mean to laugh because punching a woman in the face is repugnantly vile but...LOL!
I think Komisarek has been desperately trying to find his manhood since Milan Lucic cleaned his clock a couple of seasons ago.
What's Burkie going to do with him? Who's going to take on his inflated contract?
I doubt Komisarek will go to prison but I'm sure there'll be an out of court settlement.
What a maroon..
If he wants a good punch-up with a girl, he should come up here to Northern Ontario. Fists, beer bottles, anything goes.
[url=http://theconcussionblog.com/2011/01/18/it-is-a-shame/]It's a shame[/url]
Should brain to shoulder hits be outlawed in hockey? Are there too many shoulder contusions as a result?
Bongus Minimus (the former goalie) had a hat-trick on Wednesday, on Thursday Bongus Maximus, who didn't start playing organised hockey until last year, got his first-ever goal, then another, and Minimus got two more goals plus a beaut of an assist last night.
Me, I have but one goal so far this year, although it was on a coast-to-coast rush, and I'm 50, a defenseur, and am playing against 18-year olds.
How's the All-Star game? I think these games are a joke, especially since I can remember when the all-star game seemed as if it mattered. I once saw Bobby Orr drop down to one knee to block a Bobby Hull slap shot in an all-star game. Nobody does anything remotely close to that anymore.
The skills competition is entertaining but the All Star Game is an excrutiating pointless bore.
Entertaining? ENow is entertaning (or so I've heard), but this is supposed to be about hockey.
You're still a kid, al-Q. I'm 46, and my 60 year-old brother in law beat me by a nose in a race from Dow's Lake to downtown on the Rideau a couple years ago. Mind you, he used to play a lot of hockey when he was younger and still a pretty lean machine. Mind you I was still disappointed.
Hockey is not supposed to be entertaining?
Hmm...Maybe that explains Gary Bettman.
What Artie Shaw said about his music could easily be applied to hockey, that poetic combination of ballet and murder:
"I'm convinced that the major problem for the artist is the disparity between what he's trying to do and what the audience perceives. The very nature of an artist is that you are thinking of value; the very nature of an audience is that you are thinking of amusement. Entertainment versus art. But art was never meant to be entertaining."
Despite looking like a guy primed to attend a Halloween party dressed up as Frankenstein's Monster, Leafs forward Darryl Boyce actually dressed and played on Saturday night against the Sabres.Boyce suffered nasty facial injuries during Toronto's 3-0 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday at the ACC when he went nose-first into one of the photographer's holes in the glass.
His injuries were so bad, some newspapers elected not to run pictures of his face, even though the club's third-line centre posted a pic on his twitter account.
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