Archive for April, 2009

The Fat Lady has finally sung her final performances of the opening round of the playoffs and now we move forward to the second round. And so it’s time to once again show off your personal playoff prognosticatorial proficiency as we did for the first round. And remember…it is still perfectly legal in the state of Georgia to display your “Quad-P” in public.

But, before we begin…tell us how you did in the first round with your prognosticatorial prowess.

Me? Well, with last night’s game-seven wins by Washington and Carolina, I went 6-2. I nailed the 6-game win by Chicago as well as correctly picked Vancouver, Detroit, Boston, Carolina and Washington. The Ducks and Penguins…not so much.

As for last night…could you have asked for two better games to decide those series? Varlamov gives up an early one to the Rangers then shuts ‘em down the rest of the way. Oh, and the Caps defense allows New York only one shot on goal for the entire third period, when the game and series is on …

Continue reading Personal Playoff Prognosticatorial Proficiency – Round 2 »

I hope you are all enjoying some of the first-round matchups as much as I am. After Detroit, Vancouver and Boston each disposed of their opponents in short order, we were left with a few beauties!

We already know that the two remaining series in the Eastern Conference will require a seventh game…Washington/NYR and Carolina/New Jersey…and depending on the outcome of tonight’s games out west, we could be treated to one or two more.

For a while there it appeared as though the Flyers were going to push Pittsburgh to the brink in that series as well…but they were unable to make a three-goal lead in the second period hold up. I would say “what a collapse of epic proportions”, but that might make it seem I was minimizing the effort put forward by the Penguins.

I love NHL playoff hockey!

Goalie Who’s Who?

Try to do this without looking at the stats sheet…you might find this interesting. I’ll give you the playoff stats of two goalies that are opposing each other in the first …

Continue reading Seventh Heaven, Who’s Who & What, Me Worry? »

Change has come to D.C. …and I ain’t talkin’ about the Barack Obama kinda change here. Nope…I’m talkin’ about the change that’s been made over the course of the last week in Washington’s goal.

After the 4-3 opening game loss to the New York Rangers, Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau made a change ‘tween the pipes for game 2…turning to young Simeon Varlamov who had all of 6 regular season games and only 5 starts to his name. However, in those games he played well, compiling a record of 4-0-1 with a .918 SV% and 2.37 GAA.

Getting a puck past Varlamov has been as tough to do for the Rangers as getting a balanced budget passed in Congress (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Thrashers fans may remember this youngster…who was the 23rd overall pick in 2006 and turns 21 on Monday…from his outstanding game in Atlanta during the last week of the season. Washington won that game 4-2 behind Varlamov’s 29 saves on 31 shots performance.

Game two didn’t produce the outcome Boudreau had …

Continue reading Change Comes To Washington…Between The Pipes »

The Fat Lady officially kicked off her 2009 NHL Tour on Tuesday night by singing the Blues in St. Louis. Alex Burrows scored with 19 seconds left in the first overtime period… his 3rd goal of the series…giving the Vancouver Canucks a 3-2 win. With the loss, St. Louis became the first to hear the Fat Lady’s song ending their Stanley Cup bid and sent Vancouver to round number two of the playoffs as they swept the Blues in four games.

Roberto Luongo stopped 126 of the 131 shots he faced in the four games, which is good enough for a .962 SV%.

Three of the four games, however, were one-goal affairs…the other, game-two, was a 3-0 decision in which the score was 1-0 after two and the third goal came way of an empty-netter. A sweep, yes…but not a beat-down.

The big gal then hopped a Delta flight to Montreal where she sang a French Opera, (don’t ask me which one…I don’t “do” French Operas), as the Boston Bruins disposed of the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night. Like the …

Continue reading The Fat Lady Begins Her 2009 NHL Tour »

A number of die-hard Thrashers fans have put their heads together, joined efforts and launched The Official Atlanta Thrashers Fan Club…a club, “founded by fans and will be run & operated by fans”. Among those at the heart of this fine endeavor are Lisa Lewis and Rose Mikalonis of The Thrashers 411, Sean Grace Garguilo of Blueland Roar & current Thrashers 7th Man Award winner, Stan Hauseman who is affiliated with the Recreational Adult Hockey League and Sally Cersosimo…who has also been honored with the 7th man award, (or would that be 7th “fan”).

Thrashers fans infiltrate RCB Center last January. The OATFC will look to coordinate more road trip like this (Photo by Stacy Garguilo)

Lisa has told me that the official launch of the fan club will be on June 26th during the NHL Entry Draft Party…however they are currently accepting members now. She’s very excited about the response and has been pleased with the number of supporters that have enrolled so far.

I asked her to …

Continue reading Official Atlanta Thrashers Fan Club Takes Wing »

Anssi Salmela will play for Team Finland in the World Championships being held in Switzerland. That brings the total number of Thrashers playing in the tournament to eight. Also wearing their country’s colors are…Ilya Kovalchuk for Russia… Tobias Enstrom, who’ll play for Sweden… Colby Armstrong who will suit up for Canada… Boris Valabik will do battle for Slovakia…and Colin Stuart, Zach Bogosian along Ron Hainsey will each represent the red, white and blue for the good ‘ol USA.

What sticks out to me in that count is the fact that no less than five Atlanta defenders have been selected to compete in the tournament.

Congrats to them all and we’ll be following their success in the weeks to come.

Hey Caps Fans…We Can Relate

The Washington Capitals are in a bad, bad position right now. They had the luxury of playing the first two games of their series with the New York Rangers on home ice …and dropped both of them by one goal margins.

Game-one went 4-3 to the New York. In …

Continue reading Thrashers Well Represented At World Championships »

While was just sitting here enjoying night #2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Round 1…I thought I would gather up a small sampling of items floating around the blogosphere and share them with you. But before I do, I ‘d like to take this opportunity to thank the Detroit Red Wings for making sure that the Thrashers still are not the only team in the NHL still looking for it’s first playoff win…even if maybe for just a few more days.

Also, I’m gonna be taking the weekend off after posting this piece. If you wanna catch up with me you’ll have to go to the Big Shanty Festival in Kennesaw where I’ll be hangin’ Staurday and Sunday. In my absence here, I’ll leave the most mature and responsible one of you in charge…looking around and finding none…Ahhhhh, I’ll just leave Trixie in charge.

Did Anyone Check For Any Dangling Chads?

First up…this jewel from Puck Daddy. Seems a St. Louis Blues fan took a “T.J. Oshie For Mayor” write-in campain a bit too far and now he’s facing the …

Continue reading Ring Around The Blogosphere »

In the days that span between the end of the NHL regular season and the beginning of the playoffs, there is always a number of coaching and GM changes made by teams that were left out of the post-season fun. So, as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west…the past couple of days have produced a few such moves.

On Wednesday, Craig MacTavish was fired as head coach of the Edmonton Oilers after his team failed to qualify for the post-season for the third straight season. Edmonton finished with a record of 38-35-9 for 85points, which was good enough for 11th place in the Western Conference.

During the news conference, General manager Steve Tambellini said, “He gave everything he possibly could to help this team get better, but we both agree that it is time for a change.”

On Monday, the Colorado Avalanche made a change in the front office, relieving general manager Francois Giguere. That team finished a lowly 32-45-5 for 69 points which landed them at the bottom of …

Continue reading Oilers, Avs & Wild Making Moves – Islanders Too? »

It didn’t work…nothing we did to try and convince the hockey gods to show favor upon Thrasherville seems to have been enough.

The Nasty Nesters toasted a Christmas tree in The Gulch after Saturday’s 6-2 win against the Bolts that ended the season as a burned offering unto them…I even heard that the couch was thrown on later in the evening. I’m sure that smelled worse than the smoke from the tree.

I shipped via UPS several cases of Labatt, Molson and even a few of Moosehead for good measure. Probably got swiped by those dammed customs agents on the border. I told them to enter via Niagara Falls…not Windsor out of Detroit! Those friggin’ Red Wing fans that work the gates won’t let anything through that might help another team get the attention of the hockey gods.

Regardless, none of it worked… the hockey gods did not smile upon on this night as the NHL entry draft lottery ping-pong balls fell in order of the standings. The New York Islanders will pick first, then Tampa Bay …

Continue reading The Hockey Gods Did Not Smile On Atlanta Tonight »

OK everyone, the regular season is behind us and now it’s time for the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs…and it’s also the time to show off your personal playoff prognosticatorial proficiency! Oh, and I checked with my lawyer…it is perfectly legal in the state of Georgia to display your “Quad-P” in public.

So don’t be afraid…don’t be shy. Show it off with pride!

As is customary…I’ll go first.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

#1 Boston vs. #8 Montreal:The Bruins finished the regular season 53-19-10 and their 116 points were just one shy of winning the Presidents Cup. Montreal is in with 93 points, winning the tie-breaker with the Florida Panthers. Boston lost the first game between the two 4-3, then took the remaining five by a combined score of 20-9. Andrei Markov being out certainly doesn’t help matters for either the Habs. It’s a re-match of last year’s #1-#8 matchup, only the roles were reversed. Then, the Boston Bruins took the highly favored Canadiens to a seventh game in what …

Continue reading Time To Show Off Your Personal Playoff Prognosticatorial Proficiency »