Me Like Hockey

Yes I do.



Me work Hard five days a week,
sweeping garbage from the street.
Come home not one book to read,
not 'nuff pictures for me see.
Sit right down in favorite chair,
wearing only underwear.
Favorite night is Saturday night,
'cause me can watch hockey fights.

Me like hockey

Me not like pro basketball,
'cause me short and they all tall.
Baseball slow like Forrest Gump,
'cept when Robbie spits on ump.
Wrestlemania not so great,
Me like to see Hulk Hogan Skate.
TV socccer not that hot,
you play bad and you get shot.

Me like hockey

Swedish players must be geeks, haha
'cause they still got own real teeth. hahaha
Not like Finnish players names,
what's a Teemu anyway? hahaha
Russians worst in history,
got stupid names like Valeri. hahaha

Me like Sergi Federov,
Me like him more if head were off. hahaha

Me like hockey

Please Mr. Linesman let the players fight

Friends come over, put game on,
argue then we lay bets down.
Got bag of chips and case of Bud,
should last 'til end of first period.
But Yankees they win The World Cup,
me think they cheat use glowing puck.
Maybe if we want to winder,
maybe we should play in winter.

Me Like Hockey

Hockey's Next Great Frontier...

China?
Huh, well that definitely wouldn't have been my first guess. The US market would've been my first.

"We feel the future in China is extremely bright," said Chris Collins, a former NHL scout and broadcaster from California who has been appointed the general manager of the China Sharks.

"Is it going to be easy? Certainly not. But we're helping them to build from the ground floor up. If we do this right, it will be a path for the rest of the NHL to come to China."

The NHL has visions of glory in the lucrative Chinese market, which Collins says is "breathtaking" in its size. The NBA is already reaping $50-million (U.S.) in annual revenue from China, primarily from the sale of NBA merchandise at 50,000 outlets across the country, making it the NBA's biggest market outside the United States.

The NHL, by contrast, doesn't even have a single souvenir hawker at the China Sharks' games. "Our entire business plan only started a few weeks ago," Collins said. "But the marketplace is wide open. The game has nowhere to go but up."

Yeah, we'll just have to wait and see about that. I have serious doubts. Personally, I think the powers that be should concentrate their efforts on reviving the professional game in this country before worrying about introducing and growing it in another.

Tick... Tick...

BOOM!!!



You know I’ve done it before
And I can do it some more
I’ve got my eye on the score...

Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick … Boom!!

More Puck Rock

Darude "My Game"



What can I say? Not exactly primo stuff. However, I'll always be a sucker for anything that pays homage to the greatest movie ever made... Slap Shot.

More >>> Puck Rock.

Polar Bear Hockey

I thought it'd be pretty tough to go up against these guys...



..I guess I was wrong.

They might not be much as hockey players but I still wouldn't want to go into the corners and fight these guys for the puck.

Scoring down again in the NHL this season

...but what's the answer?

The league was averaging 5.5 total goals per game through Monday night (not counting shootout tiebreakers), down from 5.9 through the same number of games last season and markedly down from 6.2 at the same point in the first season coming out of the lockout when a number of rule changes opened up the game.

That's 100 fewer goals from last season through 251 total games and 175 fewer goals from 2005-06 at the same point.

Is the league alarmed?

"Not yet," commissioner Gary Bettman told The Canadian Press. "It's something we're going to keep an eye on. It's something we're going to continue to monitor. The game is still entertaining. We've had some high-scoring games, the Dallas-LA game Saturday night (6-5) is another good example. But we are keeping an eye on it."

The numbers are still up from the 5.1 total goals per game the league was averaging through the same number of games in 2003-04, but it's trending back the wrong way. [...]

So what now? Bigger nets? Even more reduced goalie equipment? Four-on-four play for the whole game?

Bigger nets and further reductions of goalie equipment sounds good to me.

Hockey Gone Wild

...#17 in a continuing series.

The videotape they didn't want you to see...



Hockey GM denies trying to cover up brawl

Halifax Wolverines player Kirk Forrest dropped his gloves just 43 seconds into a game Tuesday night, and chased down Josh McKinnon of the Summerside Western Capitals.

Forrest told CTV Atlantic he was seeking revenge for a previous incident and had no regrets.

"He hurt my teammate," said Forrest. "I stuck up for my teammate."

He pursued MacKinnon to the visiting team's bench and landed several punches. Another Wolverines player then dove right into the bench and the brawl escalated. [...]

The brawl was captured on tape by students Greg Sewart and Joey Johnson from Halifax's Atlantic Media Institute.

After the fight, the general manager of the Wolverines, Jack Finlay, approached the students and allegedly suggested they should tell others the tape had been lost.

"He suggested, 'Tell them we destroyed the tapes,'" said Sewart, 31.

"We were asked to lose the footage. It just seems so strange and unethical that we should be told that."

CTV News contacted Finlay, who denied making the suggestion. He said he only asked for a copy of the tape and then hung up the phone.

In an interview with the Halifax Chronicle Herald, Finlay had a different answer. He said he was only joking, and had made his comments in reference to a previous game between the two teams that Summerside failed to record.

More >>> Hockey Gone Wild.

Poll Numbers

NHL Power Rankings...

1) [1] Ottawa Senators (13-1-0, 26 points)
The Ottawa Senators just broke the NHL record for hottest start to a season. Their starting goaltender played just TWO of those games, due to injury. Chris Phillips, D, is +15 just 14 games into the season. Still has a ways to go before he reaches Bobby Orr's all-time record of +124--one of the few records Gretzky doesn't own.

2) [2] Detroit Red Wings (12-2-1, 25 points)
It was Wings' record that the Senators just broke. But with the league's top scorer in Zetterberg, and Lidstrom and Chelios playing like it's five years ago, I doubt the Wings have anything to complain about. Well, other than how Chris Osgood (goalie) has more assists than three of their forwards (in half the games!).

3) [4] Colorado Avalanche (10-5-0, 20 points)
Stastny has cooled off, as was inevitable. But this team has not, winning six of their last seven games. And the open door is now the shut door as Theodore is now this team's best goalie.

4) [3] Montreal Canadiens (8-3-3, 19 points)
Yes, they lost to Toronto. But it's not like anyone below them on this list has fared any better these past few weeks. And they sure don't seem to be missing Souray any. Only in Montreal can you have a .930 save percentage and fans question whether you should be starting or not.

5) [7] Carolina Hurricanes (9-3-3, 21 points)
Brind'Amour. Staal. Stillman. Cole. Whitney! You have to think that these Canes might be better than the team that won the Cup two years ago. What would Ronny Franchise have given for this?

6) [8] Philadelphia Flyers (9-5-0, 18 points)
The Flyers are currently 3-4 on their 8-game road trip. You do have to feel a little sorry for them. Can't quite look the Devils in the eye yet, but getting there. High priced acquisition Briere is one of five Flyers who is minus. Biron is goaltending better than the guy who made him expendable in Buffalo. And there are plenty on this team capable of becoming the fourth suspended Flyer this season.

7) [11] Columbus Blue Jackets (8-4-2, 18 points)
Ken Hitchcock has this team playing defense, and now they're the third-best defense in the league. The Jackets remain the Nash and Leclaire show, as Leclaire has 5 shutouts in 9 starts. (That is NOT a misprint!)

8) [13] New York Islanders (8-4-0, 16 points)
The Islanders grudgingly get this spot, as the team is -1 despite their .667 win pct. This team has remarkably balanced scoring and solid, if not spectacular goaltending. Which is good, because he's signed for the next 14 seasons!

9) [9] Pittsburgh Penguins (7-7-1, 15 points)
Fleury has lost his starting goaltending spot to Dany Sabourin, who will play in his 23rd career NHL game this week. In those games, he is 5-10 for his career. That said, he's still been better than Fleury (at the moment), which leads one to wonder--will Fleury ever reach the potential he showed just a few seasons ago?

10) [5] San Jose Sharks (7-7-1, 15 points)
A little upstaged by the Modano road tour last night, Jeremy Roenick is only 55 points behind him. JR's best statistical season came in 1993, and he is now one goal short of 500 for his career. These two actually played together for the US Hockey junior team in '89. Which American great would you have rather had?

Rest of the rankings can be found >>> here.

How to Drive a Hockey Fan Insane

30 days, 30 Arenas, 30 Hockey Games

My new hero, Steve Williamson, is living the dream.

He began a journey last month that will take him to a game at each of the league’s 30 arenas in 30 consecutive days.

“Putting the whole thing together was kind of Rubik’s Cube-ish,” Williamson, 49, said last Monday from his seat at Madison Square Garden, where he watched the Rangers defeat the Lightning in the fourth game of his whirlwind tour. “But this is one of those rare N.H.L. seasons where everything on the schedule lined up perfectly for me.” [...]

“A lot of people have the ability and resources to do something like this over a longer period of time,” said Williamson, talking as he snapped photos of the Garden scoreboard with his iPhone. “But I wanted to take that challenge one step further by doing 30 arenas in 30 days.”

By the end of the tour, Williamson will have traveled about 30,000 miles and spent about $10,000 on airfare, car rentals and hotels. (He said he would cut costs by staying with relatives and friends along the way). That estimate includes the price of his authentic No. 30 Lightning jersey, with a message sewn on the back: 30 games in 30 nights. He wears the jersey to every game, washing it by hand whenever his schedule allows.

“Steve is a master at logistical organization,” said Pete Williamson, 37, who met up with brother Steve at the Garden. “When he first told me about this trip I was like, Huh? But then it kind of sunk in. I know that if anyone can do this, Steve can.”

Williamson, a divorced father of two teenage boys, is chronicling his experiences on his Web site .

He spoke last Monday about “meeting knowledgeable hockey fans in an old-school hockey atmosphere at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit,” and enjoying Cheli’s Chili, which is owned by Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios.

“It’s nice to know that when Chelios is not busy slashing opposing forwards, he’s whipping up a nice pot of chili for the fans,” Williamson said with a chuckle.

He also said, referring to the game he saw in Los Angeles, that he “admired all the glitz of the Staples Center, and all the pretty girls that go to games there.” He got around to talking about the fish tacos at Honda Center in Anaheim — “I won’t do that again,” he said, chasing that remark with a gulp of beer — and about Rangers fans being “among the smartest and most loyal in hockey.”

“In Tampa Bay, it took our fans a while to learn the game,” Williamson said. “I remember back in 1992, our first season, when Chris Kontos scored four goals in one game. When he got the hat trick, some fans who threw their hats on the ice were escorted out of the arena.”

Williamson said he got the idea for this trip in 2001, when he flew 11,000 miles round trip from Osaka, Japan, where he was working at the time, to California, to see the Lightning play in San Jose, Los Angeles and Anaheim.

“Since then, I have wanted to climb a bigger mountain,” he said. “I know that bad weather and late arrivals and departures are going to be my main obstacles here, but I’m going to do this.”

You can see how Steve is doing with his ultimate puck trip through the NHL on his >>> website.