Coyotes, Kings Game 5 preview; Claude Giroux has fun; PK Subban on the ladies (Puck Headlines) (Puck Daddy)
(Tue, 22 May 2012 13:06:20 PDT)
Here are your 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. • Claude Giroux's beer pong adventures are rightfully getting attention on this lovely Tuesday, but it's the double-casted topless cornholing that we're sure a segment of our readership is more interested in. Playoffs leading scorer indeed. [ Crossing Broad ] • In case you missed it, the Los Angeles Kings' snarky infographic about being confused with the Sacramento Kings was hilarious. [ Kings ] • PK and Malcolm Subban talk race and hockey with Complex. And also, the ladies. Who "pulls the most ladies" in the Subban family? PK says: "Wow, well definitely me. I'm the oldest, I have the most experience, and I'm the best looking. I've been told that on numerous occasions, numerous. Now that doesn't take anything away from my brothers, Malcolm is good looking and Jordan's a good looking guy, too. I mean they are related to me so they get a little bit of the looks. But right now I have to say I have the most experience. I'm a veteran when it comes to that, they're still learning. They have lots of potential. They're like first-round picks right now in the game, they still have to develop." [ Complex ] • Coach Bob Hartley's Zurich Lions are ready to bid him adieu as he returns to the NHL. [ Swiss Habs ] • Speaking of the Lions, that's where Ryan Shannon of the Tampa Bay Lightning will be for the next three years. [ SB Nation ] • What kind of grade would Ville Leino receive for his effort with the Buffalo Sabres? [ Die By The Blade ] • In which Shane Doan compares the Phoenix Coyotes' plight to Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail. [ Arizona Sports ] • This is so strange: An entire column written about embellishment in the playoffs and how it needs to stop, without a single mention of Mike Smith's flopping. Oh, Arizona Republic you say? Well then. [ AZCentral ] • Look, we don't like to judge, but embezzling $144,000 from a Youth Hockey Association is a sort of [expletived] up. [ Cap Times ]

Sabres sign defenseman Sulzer for one year (The Associated Press)
(Mon, 21 May 2012 14:38:26 PDT)
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) The Sabres on Monday signed Alexander Sulzer to a one-year contract, allowing the defenseman to avoid free agency this summer.

Ratings down for conference finals; Ted Nugent backs David Booth; NHL 13 teaser (Puck Headlines) (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 21 May 2012 13:07:28 PDT)
Here are your 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. • You're probably seen Zdeno Chara's tribute to Pavel Demitra by now, but here's Slovakia's Branko Radivojevic rocking a tribute T-shirt after their semifinal win over the Czech Republic at the Hockey World Championship in Helsinki. • NBC audiences were down over the weekend for the conference finals. Lepore: "Saturday's Rangers-Devils game drew a 1.3 overnight rating, down 13% from last year's Game 4 between Boston and Tampa Bay. It may have been hurt by the early timeslot, or the fact that there was a huge dip in ratings in the lone local market, New York. Game 3 drew a 4.2 in the Big Apple, well down from the 6.2 for Game 1 on the NBC Sports Network.  Sunday's Game 4 between the Coyotes and Kings drew a 1.1 overnight, down 15% from last year's Game 4 between the Canucks and Sharks, which was a 2-1 series, as opposed to the 3-0 lead the Kings had heading in. The game drew a series high 2.7 in Los Angeles." [ Puck The Media ] • Henrik Lundqvist on the New York Rangers fans that invade the Rock: "We always have played there in Newark. It's one of the things that makes it special to play these types of games, play New York teams.  We have a lot of support, and talked about it earlier, a couple days ago, when you see the way that the fans react to things that happen during the game or even the results, it's exciting." [ Rangers Rants ] • Looks like Stu Bickel will move up to forward to replace the suspended Brandon Prust. [ Slap Shot ] • Larry Brooks believes the hate-o-meter is slowly seeing the needled move on the Rangers and New Jersey Devils. [ NY Post ] • Sports Business Journal is reporting that the Detroit Red Wings have settled on a designer for a new 18,000-seat arena to replace the Joe. [ Detroit News ] • Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the National Hockey League's Carolina Hurricanes, today announced that the team has agreed to terms with defenseman Jamie McBain on a two-year contract. The deal will pay McBain $1.7 million in 2012-13, and $1.9 million in 2013-14. [ Hurricanes ] • They signed Bobby Sanguinetti and forward Nicolas Blanchard to two-way contracts, too. [ Canes Country ] • Zach Parise is a free agent … risk? "It is very likely that he will elevate whichever team signs him in the short run, but as teams weigh the idea of making him an offer, they need to keep in mind the distinct possibility that he will underperform this contract in the near future and eventually become an anchor on the team's salary cap finances." [ NHL Numbers ] • Bear killin' David Booth has a friend in Ted Nugent. [ PITB ]

Who is the Most Clutch NHL Goalie in Playoff History? Fan's View (Yahoo! Contributor Network)
(Mon, 21 May 2012 10:37:00 PDT)
If you had to pick one NHL goalkeeper in history to win a deciding playoff Game Seven, who would it be?

What We Learned: Embarrassing LA sports media moments while covering Kings playoff run (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 21 May 2012 06:58:22 PDT)
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. It's possibly the greatest bit of investigative journalism conducted since Woodward and Bernstein brought down Richard Nixon. This exemplary, collective effort of sleuth work is currently ongoing in Los Angeles, Calif., where an entire media market has unearthed the NHL's shocking secret: The city has a professional hockey team. Over the past week or so here at Puck Daddy, we've tried to document every startling discovery made by the intrepid Los Angeles media, like how to properly pronounce Anze Kopitar's name (it's hard because he's from Bosnia or something), the real name of this Drew Doughty character ( it's actually Brad !) and that hockey is in fact not played with a ball, but rather a little piece of rubber known as a "puck." That last one makes me pretty uncomfortable because of the word it rhymes with. ("Duck" — sorry, I just don't trust 'em; they have weird beaks). Just how villainous is this team, operating as a sort of sporting sleeper cell? They got all the way to the Western Conference Finals without one local noticing. That takes real criminal talent. And not only that, but, the NHL had the diabolical idea to hide it right under the Los Angelinos' noses, by having their home games played at the Staples Center. You know, where the Lakers play. Further, they named the team the Kings to intentionally confuse even the savviest media organization into thinking they are the NBA's Sacramento Kings. Astonishingly devious stuff. More twists and turns than the Da Vinci Code, which I've read three times just to make sure I understood it all. The best bit of this journalism on this pressing issue comes, of course, from the city's paper of record, the Los Angeles Times, winner of 44 Pulitzer Prizes since 1942, including three in 2012. It was for that towering beacon of journalistic excellence that columnist Chris Erskine successfully scruted several of the team and sport's most inscrutable mysteries . For instance, that thing I said earlier about the puck (again, yuck… oh and that's another gross word it rhymes with), I learned it from Erskine. Apparently they even freeze the thing. And that's a huge point of concern, because, "The hardest shots can reach 110 mph and tear flesh, crush bone, even kill you if you're not careful." Yikes, you guys! ( Coming Up: Rick Nash to Boston?; Tororella defends Prust; Ryan Suter faces his future; Evegni Malkin is having a pretty good season; why Lundqvist is King; why the Capitals can't win with Ovechkin; the Islanders know how to party; Canucks might keep Luongo; Ryan Miller on the CBA; Flames and Oilers coaching news; and are the Kings in trouble?)

Cataractes prepared for Memorial Cup run despite long layoff
(Fri, 18 May 2012 06:21:39 PDT)
Shawinigan will take the ice for the first time in a month to face the WHL-champion Edmonton Oil Kings in the Memorial Cup opener.

Eulogy: Remembering the 2011-12 Washington Capitals (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 14 May 2012 13:41:44 PDT)
(Ed. Note: As the Stanley Cup Playoffs continue, we're bound to lose some friends along the journey. We've asked for these losers, gone but not forgotten, to be eulogized by the people who knew the teams best: The fans who hated them the most . Here is are the Boston Bruins bloggers from Days of Y'Orr , fondly recalling the 2011-12 Washington Capitals. Again, this was not written by us ... OK, by all of us. Also: This is a roast and you will be offended by it , so don't take it so seriously.) By Days Of Y'Orr The definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results … like believing an Eastern Conference Finals game will be played in Washington D.C. after the turn of the century. Welcome to the Washington Capitals Eulogy. We would, firstly, like to welcome all the Capitals fans in attendance. If this were 2003, we're sure the room would be less crowded, but we have enough chairs that all 300 of you should be cozy. We'll have our PA announcer say something whenever we need you to cheer throughout the eulogy, just in case you're as lost here as you are during an actual hockey game. We'll try to refrain from making "Alexander Ovechkin looks like the lovechild of the Geico Caveman and Adam Sandler's boss from 'Happy Gilmore'" jokes, but just know that they're there; they're there. Before the season began, the media always plays its favorite guessing game known as "NHL Predictions," and every season the same ole story happens. People pick the Washington Capitals to finish first in their division and either first or second in the Eastern Conference with Pittsburgh somewhere around them. Every year, writers pat Alexander Ovechkin on the backside and immediately pencil him in for a 90-100 point season while scoring 50-60 goals and being Russia's version of Superman. Well if Ovechkin is the Russian Superman, then clearly his kryptonite is the NHL playoffs.

What We Learned: What to make of this Washington Capitals season? (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 14 May 2012 05:28:10 PDT)
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. There's been a lot of talk about what this season has meant for the Washington Capitals in the hours leading up to, and then immediately following, their final game of the remarkably eventful 2011-12 season. Wysh had a pretty good recap of the reasons the Capitals felt this little run to a pair of one-goal Game 7s against the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds in the Eastern Conference — both having been heavy favorites — vindicated the Dale Hunter system of everyone playing defense and collapsing to within three inches of the crease, and it's perfectly reasonable for people to feel that way. Certainly, no one expected these Capitals to do much damage in the postseason given that they frittered away a division they were picked to dominate. But the thing that everyone seems to forget is that, again, they were picked to dominate the Southeast, be a superpower in the East and the League at large. If the team tuned out Bruce Boudreau, and it appears they did, then wasn't his replacement, whoever it happened to be, more or less expected to get this far? Therefore, it becomes a question about what changed, and really, what didn't. Let's not forget, Boudreau came in originally and let guys like Alex Semin, Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green have their run of the rink. Two-minute shifts? Sure! Goals aplenty? You bet. But in the end, what did it get them? Bounce-outs, and if you believe the talk, disappointing ones at that. So Boudreau changed the style, focusing more on defense, tethering Ovechkin and Co. to an extent, and … getting the same amount of success. Under each of the two clearly definable Boudreau regimes, the team lost in the conference quarter- and semi-finals. Which is of course notable because the latter is exactly how far Hunter got in his first chance at the tiller, despite doing everything in his power not to: like limiting Ovechkin to fewer than 20 minutes a night in every game in this series save for Saturday's Game 7 and the three-overtime Game 3, in which he played 35:14 — or, if you prefer 17:37 per three periods of play. This therefore vindicates Hunter only as far as it vindicated Boudreau; which, with a roster like this, and given the "choker" label being hung liberally on the former Caps coach this time last year. The philosophy changed radically under Hunter, and worked only as far as it did for Boudreau. Why? ( Coming Up: Team USA, international ass-kickers; getting stupid about Patrick Kane's drinking; Parise's future; Could Brad Stuart return to the Sharks?; Kevin Lowe says Ryan Murray is the top player in this year's draft class; Suter/Weber questions; Pancakes Penner's revenge; Bruins pumped for Dougie Hamilton; Alfredsson retirement watch; Leafs/Penguins trade?; Lundqvist is King; Alex Burrows runs and hugs a goalie; and Winnipeg Jets fans are burning Coyotes jerseys.)

Canada rout Kazakhstan to confirm group lead
(Sat, 12 May 2012 13:41:50 PDT)
Vacouver Olympic champions Canada maintained their world ice hockey championship preliminary group lead with an 8-0 thrashing of former Soviet republic Kazakhstan here on Saturday.

Ice hockey: Slovakia stun U.S., Canada sweep aside France
(Mon, 07 May 2012 14:55:00 PDT)
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Buffalo Sabres defenseman Andrej Sekera struck the game-winning goal as Slovakia stunned the United States 4-2 on Monday to claim their first victory at the world ice hockey championships. The Slovaks, who suffered defeats in their first two games, scored three goals in the first period and hung on despite a desperate fightback from the U.S. in Helsinki. Miroslav Satan rounded off the scoring when he fired into an empty net with 39 seconds left. Group H rivals Canada opened with a four-goal salvo in the first period as they swept aside the challenge of France. ...

Sweden beat Danes to keep perfect record
(Mon, 07 May 2012 13:55:26 PDT)
Co-hosts Sweden extended their winning streak at the world ice hockey championships by beating Denmark 6-4 in Stockholm Monday to claim three wins from as many matches.

Why Glendale will regret keeping Coyotes (The Hockey News)
(Mon, 07 May 2012 13:12:00 PDT)
While the Coyotes are a good story right now, the franchise still loses money and will cost the city of Glendale down the road.

What We Learned: Do mediocre divisions produce better Stanley Cup Playoff teams? (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 07 May 2012 07:24:34 PDT)
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. Occasionally you will hear that playing top teams several times a season, like those in the Atlantic and Central Divisions did this season, is a great way to prepare yourself for the postseason. They say it makes you ready to face the tougher competition in the playoffs, and by extension, those teams playing in softer divisions must logically be ill-prepared for similar rigors once the postseason rolls around. Both of the Atlantic and Central divisions were littered with 100-point teams, boasting eight of the league's 10 to eclipse the century mark between them (the other two being Boston and Vancouver), and it therefore stood to reason that they would likely send the lion's share of competitors to the conference finals. The better teams in the regular season tend to do about as well in the postseason, because they are, after all, very good teams. That makes sense. It turns out, though, that having a bunch of teams even in the neighborhood of 100 points in your division at the end of the regular season actually may be more of a detriment to a squad's postseason success. Since the lockout, only two teams have played in a Stanley Cup Final after playing in a division with three teams that managed 100 points. However, both those teams (Anaheim in 2007 and Chicago in 2010) won the Cup. If you expand that number out to even 97 points — which typically assures you a playoff berth but not home ice — only two more teams are added to the mix, the 2008 and 2009 Penguins. Conversely, teams coming out of divisions with two or fewer 97-point teams got into the Cup Finals with far greater frequency, doing so eight times since the lockout (including both Boston and Vancouver last year). But now we've seen the Los Angeles Kings advance to the Western Conference Final for the first time since 1993, and the Phoenix Coyotes stand on the precipice of doing the same for the first time since ever. Phoenix won the Pacific Division with 97 points, and is only a home ice team by virtue of its division title. Had seeding been based on points, they'd have slotted into the sixth spot. Los Angeles, meanwhile, finished with 95. The now-eliminated Sharks were sandwiched between them with 96. Three teams from one division in the playoffs, yes, but one terribly underwhelming division from which not much was expected. (Coming Up: America is a hockey superpower, thanks to Jack Johnson; Barry Trotz is wrong; Dustin Brown is awesome; Jordan Staal of Carolina; Thomas Vanek makes bank; Luongo to the Blackhawks?; Rick Dudley to the Habs; Jonathan Quick vs. Terry Sawchuck; trading Sidney Crosby; Todd McLellan-to-Calgary rumors; and the best and worst of the Capitals.)

The NHL on NBC’s Kentucky Derby contingency plan (Puck Daddy)
(Fri, 04 May 2012 12:52:28 PDT)
Game 3 of the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals was decided in the third overtime on Wednesday night after Marian Gaborik beat Braden Holtby at approximately 12:14 a.m. ET, almost five hours after the puck was dropped to begin the game. The 138th running of the Kentucky Derby takes place Saturday with post time set for 6:24 p.m. ET. NBC's pre-race coverage featuring mint juleps,  ladies wearing crazy hats and "My Old Kentucky Home" is set to begin at 4 p.m. ET. So what happens if Game 4 of the Rangers and Capitals series beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET Saturday goes into multiple overtimes? Viewers will be able to catch the entire first overtime on NBC. A second overtime will air on NBC "depending upon timing and circumstances," according to the network. Once NBC switches to pre-race coverage, NBC Sports Network will carry the remainder of the game. UPDATE : NBC has announced it will now have coverage through two overtimes on NBC, no matter what. If the game goes into a third overtime, it will switch to CNBC for the entire country, except for the New York and Washington markets, which will continue to have the game on NBC. This is always a tricky situation for NBC ever since the infamous 2007 Eastern Conference final game between the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres was switched to Preakness Stakes pre-race coverage before overtime and viewers had to flip over to VERSUS (RIP) once they realized what had happened. No decision has been made if the same will occur in two weeks on May 19 when NBC will begin its Preakness Stakes coverage beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET. That weekend will feature the NHL conference finals, which typically has at least one afternoon game scheduled. Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy

Flames shouldn't expect much from Roman Cervenka (The Hockey News)
(Thu, 03 May 2012 11:23:00 PDT)
The signing of the Czech forward is an attempt to gain offense, but here's why he probably won't live up to expectations.

What We Learned: Who says Stanley Cup Playoff hockey has to be boring? (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:45:07 PDT)
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. Watching Saturday's Capitals/Rangers game was an exercise in masochism. Sitting through that game was a test — not unlike that delivered unto Abraham — to see just how much you actually like watching hockey. Two teams playing hockey not so much against each other but rather at each other, or, to put it another way, in defiance of every hockey fan's patience. In that game, four goals were scored on 32 shots. That was between both teams, and not just one, in case you were wondering. Certainly, convention states that playoff hockey is more defensive by nature than the regular season. And though you'd be a fool to subscribe to the belief that defensive hockey is boring hockey, even the most stoic men would have been reduced to tears by the kind of temerity it takes to dare people to sit through 60 minutes of whatever that was on Saturday afternoon. But one team, at least, flatly refuses to play anything like boring hockey. That would be the Philadelphia Flyers, whose efforts have thrilled all viewers not openly supporting their opponents, and enlivened what is otherwise shaping up to be a rather drab final few rounds of the playoffs. ( Coming Up: Pierre McGuire as Habs GM; trading Patrick Marleau; Jagr vs. Brodeur; Matt Greene's unlikely goal; Predators' revenue troubles; Nail for Staal?; Landeskog graded; Columbus addresses its goalie needs; Alex Ovechkin controlled by Rangers; in praise of Danny Briere; the Winnipeg Jets are dogs; and the future of Tim Thomas.)

Eulogy: Remembering the 2011-12 Ottawa Senators (Puck Daddy)
(Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:12:11 PDT)
(Ed. Note: As the Stanley Cup Playoffs continue, we're bound to lose some friends along the journey. We've asked for these losers, gone but not forgotten, to be eulogized by the people who knew the teams best: The fans who hated them the most . Here are the folks from Leafs blog Pension Plan Puppets , fondly recalling their Battle of Ontario mates the 2011-12 Ottawa Senators . Again, this was not written by us. Also: This is a roast and you will be offended by it , so don't take it so seriously.) By Gruce Barrioch and Bon Drennan, ages six (edited by Chemmy, PPP and mf37 from Pension Plan Puppets) We're prestigious journalists. We're not bloggers. We don't give our opinions away for free; you have to pay 25 cents (a quarter loonie, aka the "quoonie", for those of you familiar with our exceptional and interesting currency) to get our opinions along with a hundred pages of other people's opinions. Or if you're lucky, you get a free copy at Tim Hortons. That's Dunkin Donuts but delicious, for you American infidels. Frankly, it's become clear that there's an NHL conspiracy afoot. How else would you explain the Ottawa Senators' record in Game 7s? If a Game 7 happens, it means that two teams were evenly matched through the first six games of the series; this is basic logic even for an Ottawa Sun employee. That's why we were forced to write this eulogy for the league's most successful and respected team: the Ottawa Senators. If you'll be so kind as to listen, we'll set down our red and white pom poms and tell you the under-appreciated story of a majestic team kept down by NHL politics. Remember, a blogger couldn't possibly have written this because bloggers are stupid.

Don Cherry’s Escape Goat; Joel Ward talks racist tweets; Game 7s (Puck Headlines) (Puck Daddy)
(Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:57:02 PDT)
Here are your 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. • Some wondered, 'Hey, what will happen when Don Cherry joins Twitter?' This. This happened. For the record, demanding a trade is Luongo's scape route …[ @CoachsCornerCBC ] • Mirtle thinks Roberto Luongo can be Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke's saviour: "Because he can contribute for another few years at a high level, however, Luongo should be Burke's top target. Toronto likely isn't the goaltender's first (or second) choice, so it will take a bit of a pitch to get him to fully buy in, but there is a relationship there with both Leafs senior VP Dave Nonis and goalie coach Francois Allaire." [ Mirtle ] • Joel Ward speaks with USA Today about the racial garbage on Twitter after Game 7: "It doesn't faze me at all. We won, and we are moving on. … People are going to say what they want to say." He also said Jeff Halpern showed him the Tweets on the team plane and apologized that Ward had to see them. [ USA TODAY ] • Hear Ward over on the Backhand Shelf podcast. [ BS ] • Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers said: "It's the Internet. They can say whatever they want, and they don't have to show their faces. It's disgusting. Things like that have happened to me before. It's not something you want to happen, but it's sad in this day and age that it continues to happen." [ Philly.com ] • Ryan Callahan is ready for Game 7 against the Ottawa Senators. [ NYDN ] • Did Daniel Alfredsson return from his concussion too quickly? [ G&M ] • Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas said "they" instead of "we" in postgame comments, fueling the idea that he's on the way out. [ Joe Haggerty ] • Frustrating news: "One week after he left Sister Kenny Institute, high school hockey player Jack Jablonski is once again being hospitalized." [ CBS , via LiquorPugs] • Our favorite thing of the day: Fox Sports Arizona reporter Todd Walsh celebrates the end of the Phoenix Coyotes' quest to reach the second round of the playoffs, framing it around former defenseman Gerald Diduck: "He was spent. There wasn't a tooth in his mouth that I could see. His jet black hair soaked. The sockets of his eyes were red from crying, and he wasn't alone. It was an epic loss in an epic series, and the rubble of that loss was strewn about the Valley for more than a decade." [ FS Arizona ]

Predators' GM, coach show pair can survive, thrive (The Associated Press)
(Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:24:29 PDT)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Predators coach Barry Trotz never wants to leave. Neither does general manager David Poile, who says he has a ''comfortable'' working relationship with his coach.

Canucks bow out early after strong season (The Associated Press)
(Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:55:59 PDT)
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) Now the soul-searching begins for the Vancouver Canucks.