Game Day - Hurricanes @ Capitals
Japers' Rink —
... when hardly a week would pass without a Caps/'Canes matchup on the slate? Well, on the off chance you miss that, you're in luck, as the Hurricanes appear on the Caps' schedule three times in the next 18 days (a span of ten games). It's not quite the three head-to-heads in four games the two teams had back in late January of 2007, but it's still more than enough time for these pseudo-rivals to get plenty reacquainted.
How are our old buddies from N.C. doing these days? Well, they're fighting for their playoff lives, and not doing a great job of it. ...
2009 NHL Trade Deadline
Hockey From the Cheap Seats —
Pens Win 3-1 For 4th Straight Win
Back To The Point —
... tonight. That's three straight wins on the road too!I'm going to keep this very short tonight, because of the trade deadline looming large. The win puts the Pens in a tie for 7th in the East with the ...
Detroit Red Wings Move To Number 1, Sharks Fall To Number 2 Tie With Boston
FanIQ Blog —
Well it happened.
Back a few months ago I wrote an article predicting that the San Jose Sharks were making a run for the Cup and would continue to find greatness.
Many of you told me I was crazy if not downright insane. You pointed out to me that the beginning of the season is a work in progress and it's the end of the season when the teams need to make the run. You assured me that the Sharks have done this before and oftentimes falter. I didn't want to believe you.
I was wrong.
Well, so far at least. The Wings have won their last two games in a row, bringing them to 94 wins ...
Pens Pull Away In 3rd For 5th Straight Win
Back To The Point —
BallHype: hype it up! Am I really sitting here writing about a five-game winning streak for the Penguins? If the Penguins do go on to make the playoffs, they will be the best prepared team in the conference. Why? They have been playing playoff type hockey since the middle of February. They are approaching every game with a life or death mentality and it's paying off. Tonights 4-1 win over the Florida Panthers (the 6-seed in the Eastern Conference ), was huge. The Rangers also won again tonight, so now there is a three-way tie for the 6-seed. ...
Litter Box Liners for Sunday
Litter Box Cats —
... David Booth: 4 points. Tomas Vokoun: a "w" in his 500th game. The Panthers: fifth place, thank you very much.
LITTER BOX LINERS ...
Recap - Penguins 4, Capitals 3 (SO)
Japers' Rink —
... and looked to be en route to sending the Caps to a fourth consecutive regulation home loss, which would have been the fifth defeat in six games at the Verizon Center. After all, the Penguins were 18-3-4 on the season when leading after two periods and 54-4-7 in that situation over the past two seasons. The Caps, for their part, had won just four times since the beginning of last season when behind heading into the third period (4-40-2). And the Penguins needed yesterday's two points. Bad. ...
Canadiens Fire Carbonneau In Surprise Move
Back To The Point —
... in a virtual lock for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conferenc e this year, while the Habs are now in a battle for their playoff lives. Currently, the Habs are tied with the ...
Game Day - Capitals @ Predators
Japers' Rink —
... When the Caps take to the ice tonight in Nashville, they'll be facing a team fighting for its proverbial playoff life for the fourth time in five games (sorry, Leafs - you're cooked). In fact, each of those four teams - Florida, Carolina, Pittsburgh and Nashville - is currently within a single point of eighth place in its respective conference and on the rise. ...
Mike Fisher, who is having an off-year, scored the winning goal in overtime for the Sens last...
Nucks Misconduct —
... a birthday yesterday. "Yeah, maybe it was a birthday gift for her, I guess," he said. "But it's good to get a win like that, keep things rolling. It was fun. It wasn't our best effort, but we'll take the win."
Ah, isn't that sweet. If that's the case, maybe a couple Canuck players should be dating celebrities and bringing them to games. Hey, whatever motivates a person...
The mothers concept didn't work very well.
The Sens have won 4 in a row now, but their chances of making the playoffs is slim-to-none.
Highlights: Sens 3 ...
Pens Score 4 In 3rd, Win 6-4
Back To The Point —
... has a system that fits this team like a glove and it's working. 10-1-3 under him is proof enough. Imagine where this team could be had Shero and Co. pulled the trigger on Michel Therrien a month sooner when it should have happened. The Penguins have 11 games remaining in the regular season and currently sit 5th in the Eastern Conference with 82 points. Most teams they are battling with for playoff positioning have a game or two in hand, so it's time to start hoping for some losses from those teams to even things out. Here's the other three goals against to update the Hal ...
How much Nuck could Modano chuck if Modano could chuck Nuck?
Nucks Misconduct —
... Despite the rash of injuries, the Stars are barely clinging to 8th spot in the West and now embark on a critical 3-game road trip starting tonight in Vancouver. There are plenty of Stars who can score in replacement of the injured guys. Remember Louie Eriksson? Yeah, he's the guy that was a thorn in our side when ...
Pens Destroy Thrashers 6-2
Back To The Point —
Well, it's about time the Pens won a game and didn't force me to down a bottle of Tums. This one was over before it started as the Thrashers were without several players, but most notably Ilya Kovalchuk. The 6-2 win tonight ties the Pens with the Flyers for 4th in the Eastern Conference , but the Flyers have three games in hand. There were some anxious moments early when Bryan Little banged home his own rebound just 34 seconds into the game. The only reason this puck ended up in the net is because of Hal Gill who practically ...
Sunday Morning Links
St. Louis Game Time —
... Hawks forward Ben Eager(forcock) has to sit out 3 games without pay and feel shame. Don't see anything about this over at Second City, but once there is something, give 'em hell.
Puck Daddy discusses the love and hate of Sidney Crosby.
Scores from last night. Thanks, San Jose. SJ 5 DAL 2
NHL standings. 2 points out, sports fans.
Tonight's action. We'd love it if Phoenix beat Anaheim in regulation. And if ...
Rangers 5 Sabers 3
Rangers Report —
Well that was a great, interesting, quite close game. Too bad it shouldn’t have been. The Rangers nearly went through a complete meltdown almost blowing a 4-1 lead in the third. The score was 4-3 with about 30 seconds remaining before Callahan blasted home his second of the night from the red line into the yawning cage. Regardless of the win ...
Recap - Maple Leafs 3, Capitals 2 (SO)
Japers' Rink —
... for weeks." So how'd the Caps do? They only committed (or at least were called for) three minor penalties. Discipline? Check. But they also drew only one penalty through regulation. Effort? Not there. Take a look at ESPN.com's Gamecast at the number of shots the Caps took on the night from between and below the offensive zone faceoff dots. And this against a team that has given up the most goals in the NHL on a night when the Caps had a chance to pass New Jersey for second place in the Conference.
Some more thoughts on the game: ...
Caps clinch playoff spot
Japers' Rink —
Caps clinch playoff spot
And so ends that drama...
Sunday Morning Links
St. Louis Game Time —
... links, I like our defense.
NHL News:
Puck Daddy welcomes back the real Sean Avery.
On rating draft prospects that are injured
Scott Cullen, TSN guy, rates the Blues D-corps at 26th. 26th!?!?
The NHL online mothership (apart from SBnation) has a good piece on the playoff chase. Also notice David Backes is in the running along the sidebar for NHL fan fav of the week. Project Mayhem, anyone?
Standings. That hurt.
Scores from last night. Ouch. ...
The Shootout and Franchise Records
Japers' Rink —
... declared the winner... and awarded a win and an additional point in the standings. Four times this season, the Caps have grabbed that shootout win and extra point. Additionally, back in the mid-80s, overtime losses - as far as the standings were concerned - were treated the same as regulation losses, and teams didn't get a point solely for being tied after sixty minutes. The '85-'86 Caps didn't lose a single regular season game in overtime, but this year's team has received points for losses eight times so far.
In other words, the ...
Death Watch: Chances good we'll see more Habs/Bruins carnage
Puck Daddy —
Since we're down to the final moments of postseason life for teams in contention, Puck Daddy solemnly begins a daily countdown to annihilation. The Eastern Conference field is set for the Stanley Cup playoffs, as we toll the bell for both the Florida Panthers and Buffalo Sabres after the Montreal Canadiens earned a point and the New York Rangers earned a win last night. The Sabres obviously have some tweaking to do, even if the majority of the roster is signed through next season. Panthers fans will no doubt play the blame game a little here at the end; especially when it comes ...
Sunday Morning Links
St. Louis Game Time —
... it, Coach Q!
Lemaire won't be back as bench boss in Minnesota. No more boring-ass Wild games!
Will the 10+ year contracts be a trend in the salary cap era? Franzen sentenced to 11 years with the Wings. Mirtle weighs in on it here.
Isles fans, we feel your pain (About 4 years ago)
There's another side to the Blues qualifying for post season hockey: The Preds didn't qualify. Sucks.
Scores, Standings, and Schedule.
Other Stuff: ...
Game (4) Day - Capitals @ Rangers
Japers' Rink —
... But, as mentioned earlier, it's going to take another team effort tonight to win a second consecutive game in a building in which the hosts dropped just 11 games in regulation all season, and part of that - as it has been all season - is discipline. On Monday night, the Caps gave the Rangers six power play opportunities via a couple of holds, a couple of slashes (and not ...
