Martin Brodeur's New Web Site

Hi there! Welcome to my web site. For years, many of you have been following my career. I've had many happy moments playing the game and I want to share them with you through this site. I hope you will enjoy your visit. As for me, I'm returning to the ice … I still need a few more wins!

So begins Martin Brodeur's new web site, martinbrodeur30.com. He's likely going to be breaking some records this season, so why not start pimping himself out? Maybe he learned it from Avery...

MartinBrodeur30.com, your source for pink "Stop-the-puck" wallpapers.

I don't have time to do a full post on this.

GREAT NEWS!

Looks like Randy Jones (D-PHI) is out for up to 2 months!  You're next, Bernard Pollard.

Game 1: Bruins @ Avalanche

Game 1: Bruins @ Avalanche

Oct 9, 2008, 10:20 PM ET

On TV:  Versus (HD unless Golf is showing instead...don't let us down, VS.)

On the Radio:  WBZ 1030

Notes:

• Tim Thomas v. Peter Budaj in nets, probably.  Thomas tried out for Colorado a long time ago, and didn't get in.  Budaj didn't get many starts behind Jose Theodore, but he's being given the keys to the net this year, with Bruins and Maple Leafs washout Andrew Raycroft. (Seen above)
• Joe Sakic hates the Red Sox.  He's also been playing hockey almost as long as I've been alive.  Nothing personal, but him pulling a Chris Chelios would be nice.
• Fluto's got the possible lineup for the Bruins.  And the Avalanche, for that matter.
• The game is starting even later because the Avs are honoring some Hall of Famers, including Cammi Granato.
• Other GameDay items: JumboTron, Boston.com, The Bruins Report, WickedBruinsFan, Bruins Nation, hubhockey, and I'm sure others will be forthcoming.  If I missed one, let me know and I'll throw you on.
• This kid is 60 and in mastercard commercials.  We need another one like the one he's got there.  Go get em, B's.

GO BRUINS!

2008-2009 Penguins Season Preview

EA SPORTS World: 08 09 Penguins Preview

State of the Bruins 2008 80 minute Video

I know we're all excited with preseason hockey at this point, but after clicking around from HubHockey's excellent pointing out of the "Is this the year?" ads, I found that the Bruins put the whole 80 minutes of awkward joking up on their video page. Here's the embed, or watch it on nhl.tv without my page sitting here.

(UPDATE!) Much more importantly, they have the Jumbotron Intro from Game 6 of the 2008 Playoffs:


Killer. Go Bruins.

The Last Time the Bruins won the Cup...

...Watergate was just a hotel.
...Atari wasn't yet a company, and Pong not yet a game.
...We were still drafting kids for Vietnam...and Jane Fonda hadn't taken her famous picture on the anti-aircraft gun.
...The ATF was part of the IRS.
...The 1972 Olympics hadn't happened yet.
...Bob Barker had never hosted The Price Is Right.
...The Summit Series of 1972 had never happened.
...They only hired men into the FBI.
...Nixon hadn't been re-elected yet.
...they were still sending manned missions to the moon.
...the Steelers had never won a postseason game.
...Busta Rhymes, Biggie Smalls, Manny Ramirez, Derian Hatcher, Andy Pettite, Ginger Spice, Del, Ben Affleck, Cameron Diaz, Chris Tucker, Liam Ghallager, Gwyneth Paltrow, Eminem, Wyclef Jean, Rodney Harrison, Jude Law hadn't been born yet.
...Jackie Robinson, Ezra Pound, Harry S Truman were still alive.

And that's just what happened in the second half of 1972.  Been a while, eh?  Let's go get some this year, folks.

Report on State of the Bruins

Well, State of the Bruins is over, Lucic showed off the third jersey and it looks a heck of a lot like the one they showed off last year. Also, I learned that people who write about the Bruins as a job generally will beat me to the punch on anything like this. So you can read Fluto's and Bish's reports. Some things to add:

• Julien mentioned that if Ryder didn't pick up, he'd just have to remind him "of a bag skate I had him do when he was 17. I don't think he wants to do that again."
• Phil Kessel is talent, everybody knows that. Julien said he "can't let him off the hook."
• There were a couple of reasonable requests from fans, like "If you're not going to make new program books for every game, can you give season-ticket-holders free roster printouts?" The money quote was "I already have 3 or 4 of these books at home." Personally, I print those out for free myself, but if the Bruins could do it for me, that would be great too. I went to a Minnesota Wild game last season and the program was specific to that game, with full-color pictures throughout and stuff on the wild and on the other team. They also had a custom game intro for a game in December against the Oilers. It was a sick game.
• Charlie Jacobs said that one of the reasons that Game 6 last year was so huge was that the building was rocking. Cam Neely compared it to the old Garden. Guys, you should really look into student rush instead of student nights. There are a ton of Boston fans that would really enjoy going to Bruins games, but can't afford it. Look into Pittsburgh's student rush program.
• There was talk of bringing back Bruins Alumni, similar to what happened in Chicago last year. Neely mentioned that there were a lot of bruins alumni in the boston area, that he'd like to bring back. Now they just have to stop hating the team. Charlie, you should get together with Rocky Wirtz and learn a thing or million.

I'm also starting to learn about just how much people hate Jeremy Jacobs. Few people clapped for him at the event, and the internet is full of anti-Jacobs stuff. Just check out his wikipedia page. I didn't realize he bought the team so long ago. Ah well, it's a learning opportunity.

As is this post. I had great plans for it (I took ten pages of notes at the event and took pictures) but I'm suffering PensBlogitis. Already. Without their dedicated readership and insanity. Oh well, they always say the second issue is the hardest.

So It Begins

Tonight marks the start of the Bruins season for me, as I'll be attending the Bruins "State of the Union" (BrUnion?) at the Garden tonight at 7pm.  If you have any questions I should ask (if there even is an opportunity) leave them in the comments.  

If I had an iPhone, you better believe I'd be live-blogging the event.  Unfortunately, I'll just have to take notes and get back to you.  The Bruins also never got back to me about my press pass application.  Maybe my lack of an editor is to blame, maybe they just don't know what they're missing. 

Some links to tide you over:

• Better-than-being-the-leafs Dept:  Here Comes the Bruins! lays out why the Thornton trade wasn't that bad.  Let me cut to the chase for you:

Average games played last season: 52.8
Average points scored last season: 28.4 (not counting goalies)


Yikes. Put that roster on the ice today and you've got yourself a lottery draft pick. About half a dozen of these guys will not start the season on an NHL squad. Only Thornton, Rolston and Knuble have avoided career collapse of some sort... and they're not exactly what you'd consider the core of a dynasty.

• Weight-Gain-3000 Dept:  Tukka Rask, Mark Stuart, and David Krecji all bulked up over the offseason.
• Real-Journalists Dept: Fluto gives us a killer Depth Chart.
• I'm extremely jealous that Chris over at Icethetics has time during the day to hold a live blog, but I'm happy that he is able to let me know that the Hurricanes are going to be unveiling their new third jersey today, and showing it live on their web site.
• Amazon.com sold out of NHL 09, continuing to give them a horrendous track record when it comes to day-of-release sales with me.  I'll have to wait until next week to start my EASHL career.

And from the Wild branch office:

• Franchise-deciding-years Dept: Marion Gaborik is negotiating with the Wild front office.
• Can't-wait-til-the-season-starts Dept: Wild puck banter is counting down the top 10 players of the Minnesota Wild.  Number 6 is Nick Schultz.

Patrice, Tom, and Stephane

As stated before, crap.

However, I'm looking at a certain team 22 miles away from Gillette, and month and a day from beginning it's season.  They had a key player (some say the best player on the team - I'm not so sure) knocked out early in the season.  Granted, that one was from a dirty hit and a half, and damn near killed him.  Brady walked off the field.  

Regardless, it was a huge hit to the Bs season last year, though people were saying that Boston would be last in the East last year.  They were of course proven wrong, and it was quite exciting.  Well, for me, at least.  Better luck next year, Buffalo.  You should've taken your stacked team from two years ago through everything.

As for this year, I should probably be making some sort of prediction here.  There will be one forthcoming.  For now, get excited about Stephane Yelle, who lived next to Andrew "CrosbyFighter" Ference in Calgary:  (ok, so he'd rather be known for his charity work)

“His nickname is sandbox,” said Andrew of Stephane. “He is just full of grit.”

Should fit right in with the rest of the Big Bad Bruins.  I'm started to get pumped for not just Hockey coming back, but the Bruins coming back.  Training camp is coming....who among you will I be seeing at the rink on Saturday the 20th?

GET PSYCHED!

Milan Lucic, Beast. Tom Brady, Injured. Bobby Orr, Joke?

First of all, from elsewhere in New England, fuck fuck fuck.

And back to hockey: I was over at HFBoards today, and I go pointed at a hilarious website: nomoreorr.com, which has gems like this:

We at NoMoreOrr believe that Bobby Orr is highly overrated and receives far too much praise for his "accomplishments". Our belief is that there are far more deserving players from modern hockey who deserve the spot in the Hall of Fame currently filled by Bobby Orr and our goal is to free up that spot for a more deserving candidate. Bobby Orr's talent level was nothing compared to that of today's players and quite frankly, we're tired of hearing about him.

It must be a farce. I take it about as seriously as killallanimals.com.

Looks like the Bruins have gotten their own putter. Happy Gilmore would love it.

It seems that nobody including TSN can do a preview of the Bruins without mentioning that the rest of the teams in boston that are doing things like making it past the first round of the playoffs...I personally can't wait until I'm going to Bs games in May, though I'm not sure if that'll be .

TSN also says that Milan Lucic is the face of the franchise going forward. I like the guy, definitely, and hope he continues to grow in the direction he's going. I'm just not sure he's face-of-the-franchise just yet. He was 11th on the team in goals with 8 (the 11th-highest goalscorer had 8 goals? We should score more) 7th in assists with 19, for 10th in points with 27. Then again, he's only behind Zdeno Chara in PIM, with 89. Also, he's been known to make som clutch plays. People say he's the second coming of Cam Neely, and I hope they're right. Oh, those boys from Vancouver, what will they do next?

Well, I think Joe Pelletier is from around there, and he's trying to stir up some controversy with his Two Goalies, One Net post.

Well, that about wraps it up for my rambling. See y'all tomorrow!

Lazy Links on a Friday (NSFW)

A word of warning before you read this: Usually I try not to be low-brow, but hey, it's funny in this case, and in some ways fitting. That said, the story below is NSFW, y'all, but it's Friday, so whatever.

A couple of links for you on a friday evening:

• Here Come the Bruins! has a top 5 Bruins YouTube videos list. It goes really well until #1.
• NESN had Game 6 from last year's playoffs on...man, that was a great game.
• The new Bobby Orr's Bastard talks about Media Overexposure Hangover and why it's making him a Bruins fan. Hopefully, more will follow and then either Bob Kraft or John Henry will buy the team.
• The Bruins have released that they will be participating in the pay more for games that will likely be good program so popular in the NHL these days. If I didn't have season tickets already, I'd be mad.
• Fluto Shinzawa has some video from Ristuccia arena about training camp. Well, sort of. He also updated about 30 times today.
• Good news from the Bruins: I can go to some of the training camp at the TD Banknorth Garden. Can't wait.
  
• And, lastly, here's your (dirty) Mats Sundin Madlibs Press Release, courtesy of NHL Fanhouse and my roommates, who don't know who Mats Sundin is:

Today, Mats Sundin made a big decision regarding his future. His agent, Zortog, announced that Mats has signed a contract with DuceTek to play professional Masturbation. The length of the deal is 7 years for 7 million dollars. In a statement released through his agent Zortog, Mats did not comment on whether or not he would return to the NHL, but he did have the following to say about his newest endeavor.

"I'd like to thank the good people at DuceTek," Sundin said. "They have been very good to me and their Fluffing is clearly the best in their industry. I'm looking forward to using Fluffing a lot to Masturbate."

It is still not clear at this time if Mats will return to the NHL this Epoch. He has reportedly set a deadline for Game Time but even Mats admits that is not a hard deadline. To try and clear his head and think things through Mats has gone to Shaw's with Lady Liberty for Epoch. There he is Masturbating and Fondling. The latter really helps Mats to increase Stamina.

So there you have it, folks. Still no decision from Mats Sundin, but he is now a professional Masturbator. That crazy, Mats! You never know what he'll do next.

Games without slaughtered animals and other KHL innovations (brought to you by Google Language Tools)

So, the KHL english site doesn't exist yet or the link is broken, which means that we all get to use Google Language tools  to follow our favorite teams (or just for the joy of looking at stat sheets, whatever floats your boat.)

Anyhow, the stat sheet has some interesting Statistics in it, such as:

• Winnings in Poslematchevyh Bullets 
  
• Loss of Bullets Poslematchevyh
  

I assume those two are shootout wins and losses.  However, with the Russian police the way they have been recently, it could be something else.  The real winners, though, are these guys:

• Games without slaughtered animals
  
• Games without missing head
  

I believe those are for and against, but I really want to believe that they are in fact actual statistics translated properly.  PETA will be in touch.  Perhaps Tuvanhillbilly or Alex Ovejtkin blog can tell me for real.  Then there are the other funny translations:

• Zabitov Goals
  
• Ignored Goals
  

The situations include "in unequal convoys," which is easy enough to figure out, but I imagine involves one team having a better traveling bus than another.

Also, it looks like their point system is:

3 points regulation win

2 points overtime win

1 point overtime loss

0 points regulation loss

I can't wait until there's a real english site so I can actually start looking into this stuff rather than making fun of the automatic translator.  Or for the NHL season to begin.  Whichever comes first.

Happy September!

Well, I've finally got internet in my place, and I am ready to start doing some blogging....once I get everything set up. The big news right now is that the Bruins just picked up Stephane Yelle, who helped Ray Bourque win the cup and then was traded the next year to Calgary. Some other fun things about Mr. Yelle:

• Mile High Hockey thinks he was the 15th best Av of all time.
• THN said he was the 9th best player still looking for a team as of right before he got signed. Actually, hmmm... that was posted at 3pm, and the news broke at.... 3:41pm. Rats, I was hoping the thing posted late.
• Puck Daddy's season preview may be a little off now, with this signing. It's still a good read, with yet another dig at Tukka Rask's name. Well, Tuskan Raider is closer than Caveman.
  
• I'm wondering if he'll be back in #26 like he was with the avs, as the other two he's worn (11 and 7 with the Flames) are taken, by what number he'll wear, since 7 is retired, and P.J.'s got #11. Probably, or maybe he'll go with a whole new one. It won't take long to find out.

I'm excited that Hockey Season is coming! My new apartment has NHL Network...between that and NHL 09, I may never leave my house again.

Lazy Links: Old Men in Colorado, etc

I want to put something up here, but I don't have time to make it a good one. Some news around the league:

• Sakic is manning up for his 20th season, and Forsberg is out until Christmas for "conditioning." Your move, Sundin.
• Bruins fans are classy: Fluto Shinzawa wisely uses the picture of Sydney Crosby's first fight in his article on Andrew Ference.
• AmericanHockeyFan points to a solid example of good journalism and as you can guess, he didn't point here.
• Mirtle has a lot of time on his hands
  
• Puck Daddy and Fanhouse will have anything I missed, including another "5 Ways..." article, this time from Stu Hackel:

4. More shorthanded play. The NHL isn't going to enlarge the size of the playing surface. Forget it; the owners are not taking out two rows of their most expensive non-suite seats. And let's not consider making the game a four on four contest. Besides ruining the symmetry of the spectacle, it would negate too much of the physical element from the game, and enough has vanished since the lockout. But here's a good compromise: End the substitution of players for coincidental majors and for when minors taken while a team is already shorthanded. Two guys fight? It's four on four for five minutes. A pair of fights? Three on three. Two guys get their sticks up during a power play? It's now four on three. Those were the NHL's rules for a long time and restoring them now would make sense.

My dad would love that. I guess I should write my own "5 Ways..." article. More on that later.

2010 Olympics preview: Quatchi

While checking out the official site for the 2010 Olympics, I spent some time in their mascot section, which is quite silly, but also a lot less depressing than the ticket prices section. I found "Quatchi" there, who you see playing goalie in this picture to your right (my left - that's right, I'm INSIDE THE COMPUTER). As it turns out, I'm not the first person to find this shy-but-well-traveled photographer goalie wanna-be. They've been selling plush Quatchi dolls, and Quatchi has been travelling. I hope y'all find all of this at least half as silly as I do.

As for NHL hockey? It's still August. I'm not sure if I'll be posting until I get internet into my new apartment.

2010 Olympics preview: Men's Ice Hockey

As the 2008 Beijing Olympics come to an end (way to go, Phelps!) I'm already looking forward to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. They're February 12th to the 28th, 2010 in Vancouver and a few other nearby spots. The part I (and apparently, Canadians) care about is the Ice Hockey. I have to admit, I'm more excited for men's than women's, but mostly because I know some of the players on the Men's teams and none on the women's teams. (Where are you, WNHL?)

I've decided I want to attend the games, or at least part of them. Tickets haven't gone on sale yet, but will soon in Canada and other locations. If anyone is out in Canada and wants to nab a ticket or many for me, I'd be more than happy to make it worthwhile. I'm going to start saving now, I think. After all, it's $350 for the nosebleeds for the men's gold medal game.

So, as long as I'm going, I may as well figure out what's going on and who's playing and all that jazz. As it turns out, nine teams have already qualified for the tournament (with current medal totals in the event):

Belarus (4th in '02)
Canada (7 golds, 4 silver, 2 bronze)
Czech Republic (1 gold, 1 bronze - Czechoslovak team had 4 silver, 4 bronze)
Finland (2 silver, 2 bronze)
Russia (1 silver, 1 bronze - USSR had 7 golds, 1 silver, 1 bronze and Unified team won gold in '92)
Slovakia (5th in '06 - Czechoslovak team had 4 silver, 4 bronze)
Sweden (2 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze)
Switzerland (2 bronze from '28 and '48)
United States (2 gold, 7 silver, 1 bronze)

There are 3 open spots in the big tournament. The top three teams from the "Qualification Tournament" get those three spots. The Qualification Tournament, in turn, has 3 spots open at the bottom of it's seeding, for teams from the Olympic Pre-qualification tournament. The Olympic Pre-qualification is in turn fed by some teams from the Pre-qualification tournament. As a result, the prequalification is being held in known hockey hotbed of Turkey, and will include the likes of Bulgaria (last in '76), Mexico (never qualified), Spain (never qualified), and Turkey (never qualified). They'll play before November, sometime, because the prequalification is on November 6-9, 2008. Already qualified for that tournament are, in seed order:

Kazakhstan (Former soviet country, finished 8th on it's own in '98)
Hungary (never qualified)
Poland (4th in '32)
Japan (never qualified)
Lithuania (never qualified)
Netherlands ('8th in 1980)
Estonia (25th - '06)
Croatia (never qualified)
Romania (competed in four)
China (never qualified)
Great Britain (Gold in '36 and bronze)
Serbia (never qualified)

And the list of those already qualified for the Qualification Tournament:
Germany (2 bronze)
Latvia (9th in '02)
Norway (8th in '72)
Denmark (never qualified)
Italy (7th in '56)
Slovenia (never qualified)
Austria (8th in '76)
Ukraine (10th in '02)
France (5th in '20)

And if you've read this far, here's a bonus: So far, the best video about the 2010 olympics is about Quatchi, a shy sasquatch who loves to travel and one day dreams of being the world's best goalie. Seriously, watch the video. You will not be dissapointed.

Logos, Icethethics

So, I'm thinking of doing gameday previews for this upcoming season. I've started to look around for bruins (and other teams) logos. It brought me to a former favorite of mine: Icethetics (formerly NHL Tournament of Logos). If you were reading hockey blogs last offseason, this was certainly one of them. It was the best source for information on the RBK Edge jerseys back then, and they were having a tournament. The Habs logo was selected as the best logo of the NHL, which I disagree with. Then again, I think my red sox "yankees suck" hatred has bled over into "habs suck" hatred, especially after last year. Canadiens fans are for the most part quite nice people, I've found, with the exception being ones that have been attacked by bruins fans. They are really annoying when they're infesting your arena, though. I could go on an on about the habs@bruins experience, and I'm sure I will soon.

They're having a center ice tournament right now of which teams logo with a line through it plus the name of the arena around it is best. Here's the Center Ice Bracket. The Bell Centre and the TD Banknorth Garden are currently squaring off like Shawn Thornton and...Komisarek? Some other hab? I don't know, they're all bad guys anyhow. Regardless, go to Icethetics and vote for the Bruins!

I also was looking through their old stuff, and found the Bruins "Guitar" (Banjo?) picture that has already burnt itself into your brain. It came from a series that someone was trying to do, the first part of which can be found here on the old site. I didn't see much beyond parts one and two, but that may be because they switched sites.

Paramore and other crappy music in NHL 08

It's August. Between working, and figuring out stuff for moving out of my old place and into the new one (less than 2 weeks left!), I've been playing some NHL 08 on my Xbox. And I've got to tell you, the "music" in NHL 08 is....unfortunate. Naturally, the worst song of the bunch is Paramore's "Misery Business." I think the rest of the mediocre indie-pop wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have the singer from Paramore screaming in my head for the past 2 days. It's like when the crappy song off the last Anti-Flag album was in Madden 07, except that I like Anti-Flag and don't like Paramore.

Luckily, the band has apparently already apologized for the song. Ok, just the casual use of the word "God." It's a start, though. Next step: Getting a better soundtrack for EA's NHL 09... crap.

The reason I even bought NHL 08 was that NHL 2k8's menus kept crashing, but that's another rant for another afternoon. If I have only more Bill "clothespin-on-the-nose-pin" Clement and crappy indie pop to listen to from the next one, I'll...still buy it. The League's got everyone by the balls. I mean, Puck Daddy interviewed the producer, and everyone was all hibbity-bibbity about it, myself included.

On another note, Comcast is coming tomorrow to take away the cable (and internet), and it's not like there's a ton of news in August, so you might not see much from me until September.

Speaking of new photos...

As an aside, Joe Pelletier is having the Greatest Photos in Hockey History series while he's on vacation right now. Head on over and check it out!

New Look

Thanks to some extra time and the Flickr search-by-creative-commons option, I've found a new top image and we've got a new blogger layout to complete the "new look" of what was, for a brief moment, "Zorkon Talks Hockey," until I realized that nobody has any clue who "Zorkon" is, and I can use my real name to talk about the Bruins and other hockey stuff on the internet.

New Headline Image's original photo was taken by Eric Kilby and is released under a by-sa creative commons 2.0 license. If you want it without the text and at higher resolution, please go to his flickr page. I have no affiliation with him, except that I like this picture and his Ballpark Panoramas Photoset. I hope the rest of you are weathering August at least as well as I am, which is to say slightly better than Ryan Whitney. More to come when I get free moments and hockey news appears.

R.I.P. soon Reggie Dunlop

The Alex Ovetjkin blog brings us some sad news: Paul Newman wants to die at home. The man is a fantastic actor, and it's sad that he will not be long for this world. However, he's certainly paid his dues and will always be remembered by hockey fans as Reggie Dunlop, Coach and center for the Chiefs in the movie, Slapshot. Some say that it is the best hockey movie ever made, and I'd be hard-pressed to argue.

he was also in a whole host of other movies, the least of which definitely not being Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. If you haven't seen it, go check it out.

Fuck you, Stoosh (also, happy birthday!)

Howdy, y'all. Apparently, the Pensblog really has Whole lot of time on it's hands. And an alleged happy birthday to their resident motivational days-until-hockey countdown artist, Stoosh.

Well, happy birthday, fucko. Will I see you at the game on October 20th?

UPDATE: I also commented in the PensBlog comments, and this is what Stoosh wrote back:

@ Cornelius -

All in good fun, sir...all in good fun. You had no way of knowing this ahead of time unless you've been here over the last couple of years and heard me mention it, but I count the B's among my top three favorite teams in the NHL.

I should note as well that one of the sites I saw with that same picture made the reference that it WAS a Bruins game, but the game was being played despite a large snowstorm that hit New England, and that was the reason for the small crowd. We've had games here with similar crowds under similar circumstances.

I will say, though, B's attendance has been down a bit the last couple of years, and it's sad to see that team taking a decided back seat to the Patriots and the Sawks (for the record, I hate the Pats but like the Sawks and while I don't follow the NBA anymore, I respect the Celtics).

I agree. All in good fun. I hadn't realized when that picture was from (though if it happens again, I'll definitely remember it).

Tom Lynn takes on the Trap

Tom Lynn for the Wild talked about the Trap today.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been watching the olympics and nothing happens in August. "Zorkon Talks Hockey" should be seeing a re-invention soon. (I got my photoshop, and I should have a better mouse before too long!).

So long, and thanks for all the goals...

As I wanted, Glen Murray is starting to go through the motions for a buyout by putting him on waivers. Don't feel too bad for him, though - he's still getting over a million dollars for his services. He certainly has played well for the Bruins, and some fans will no doubt be annoyed at this. On the other hand, check the graph. It's rough when players who have been good decline, but at the same time I think Glen Murray's not putting up numbers in accordance with the money he's making.

Then again, I will probably be eating my words when the soon-to-be 36-year-old winger ends up on a team looking for a veteran and they all do well. Or, he may just retire. But I doubt it. In the age of Chelios, there is no such thing as too old to play pro hockey. So, what's next for Muzz?

Owen Nolan WILL NOT DIE

Thanks to the NHL Frozen Moment, which needs it's own RSS feed, I was reminded of the most exciting pickup by the Minnesota Wild this offseason - Owen Nolan.

Here's the thing about Owen Nolan: He's a Brit. Not only that, he's one of two active British players. The other one? Daniel Taylor, who has played all of 20 minutes backstopping the Kings last year, letting in 2 goals on ten shots (including letting in the first shot) in the third period, letting Dallas turn a 5-1 steamroll into a 7-2 blowout and giving himself a career GAA of 6.

With so few British players in the NHL, and Owen Nolan having had a long and illustrious career, you'd think that he is one of the best british players ever. You would be correct. He's second best in Games Played, Goals, and Points behind Steve Thomas. Nolan is also second overall British player in Penalties in Minutes, to another Steve - this one's Smith.

Steve Thomas played with Toronto, Chicago, NY Islanders, New Jersey, Toronto, Chicago, Anaheim, and Detroit between 1984 and 2004, when he retired at the age of 40. Nolan? He's only 36 this year, and just signed for 2 years. He's gotta get 40+1 goals in 167+1 games to best those totals...and he's also 124 assists behind Thomas.

As for national team aspirations? Both Thomas and Nolan have played for the Canadian National team, but not at the same time. Also, no mention of Owen Nolan is complete without this:



It would of course be wrong to mention British players without mentioning Ken Hodge, who won two Stanley cups with the Boston Bruins after coming over as a part of the deal for Phil Esposito. Remember when that used to happen? Me either - it was over 10 years before I was born.

Home openers/HOME-AND-HOME

So, the new NHL schedule has each team playing:
Divisional rivals: 6 times (24 total)
Non-division conference rivals: 4 times (40 total)
Western teams: Once each + 3 home-and-homes. (18 total)
It's still 82 games, but each team has to play each other at least once, which is awesome.

The full schedule is due at noon today. For those keeping track at home, that's less than 12 hours since I started this post, and less than 5 from when I'm actually posting it. Many (all?) teams have announced their home openers, as well as which teams they're playing the 3 extra extra-conference games.

Luckily for me, Wild and Bruins fan that I am, the Bruins and Wild are playing each other TWICE this season. In fact, the Bruins will be the Wild's home opener team. Last year, the Bruins were the home opener opponent for the Anaheim Ducks. The Bruins lost, 2-1. Two years ago, the Bruins hosted the Minnesota Wild. I totally went to that game, even though it was right before spring break. Regardless, I enjoyed the Wild's 2-1 win then. I'm not sure I'll be so happy about such an outcome this time.*

So, the extra divisional games for the Wild are Boston, Tampa Bay, and the Islanders.
The ones for Boston are Minnesota (duh), St. Louis Blues, and...The Chicago Blackhawks!

I'm pretty excited about the Blackhawks/Bruins matchup, because Chicago has raised itself up out of a what, 10? 20? 30? year slumber and are now quite the exciting team. Heck, they're hosting the winter classic this year at Wrigley Field.

Also, the Bruins' home opener is on October 20th (2 weeks into the season) against the Pittsburgh Penguins. I'll see you there.

*Actually, screw it. I still like the Wild a lot. They were the team, with the rotating captaincy, that really got me into hockey in the first place. Both teams have lost Brian Rolston to a non-conference team (he went NJ-Boston-MN-NJ). That guy is good at teh hockies. That said, I hope Manny Fernandez backstops the Bruins to a spoiler. I like minnesota a lot, but they don't have the long history that the Bruins do. Luckily, both GMs seem to have a "long-term-plan" (aka the "lack of" plan) about their respective teams. They DO NOTHING AT THE TRADE DEADLINE. They both lost in the first round to teams that had crushed their hopes and dreams earlier that season. My first hockey Jersey was a Wild jersey, (My name, #1) but my second was a Bruins jersey (Chara, at the 50% off merch booth behind the bad guy balcony seats).

Flames/Jets Preseason Showdown

According to TSN, Calgary and Pheonix are playing a preseason game this year in Winnipeg. Normally, I don't care much about preseason games, but this is interesting in that the Phoenix Coyotes were once the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets beat Calgary in the 1987 preliminary round of the playoffs in 6 games. No word on what residents of Winnipeg have to say about it, or whether the Coyotes will wear throwback jerseys (please?). If they did, that could set the stage for, say, Hurricanes/Northeast team in Hartford. Which would be...baller. I bet I know some people who wouldn't know whether to go or not.

Matt Foy Signs with Blues

Ah, Matt Foy. I knew ye well, ever since that time when I watched you in your first NHL game with the Wild, where you scored twice and then were so excited you ran right into some guy, got a penalty, and then were sat for the rest of the game. I remember it well, watching on the Center Ice free preview at my parent's house a couple years ago. Good times. I wonder if he'll be playing with the big club, or in the AHL still. In fact, I wonder what the blues' minor league team is. Huh...oh well.

Foy, I know the fine folks on the wild.com message board didn't like you much. Oh well. That one game was a hell of a time. Have fun with the...whatever they are.

In similar news, former Bruin Brandon Bochenski got picked up by the Lightning earlier this month. I remember going to a game and seeing him bring the hustle, all game long. Rookies are exciting like that, I guess. Then it turns out they're not that great, but there's a whole new crop of them, trying to push the slightly older guys out.

DIRTY DIRTY DIRTY

Looks like Detroit will be dirty good next year. They've managed to poach Ty Conklin on July 1st, and then grabbed Hossa the next day. They aren't exactly losing anyone too important, either, except Hasek. Then again, Hasek lost 2 games to Nashville before he got pulled and Osgood won 10 straight games. Basically, Detroit is going to be EVEN BETTER than last year. I'm repeating it now, after everyone else already has: The Detroit Red Wings will be DIRTY DIRTY DIRTY good next year.

From my friend Joe, a Penguins fan:

Its one thing to say "I'm not winning in Atlanta, I want a chance to win somewhere."
It's another thing to say, "I was only runner up last year. I am going to the team that won and abandon the team that have me a chance."
I hope he blows out his knee and can never play again.
Enjoy that 1 year mercenary contract, Cinderella.
I hope you die.
He will get stabbed in Detroit.

Well, at least there's no hard feelings.

Big Moves....but not in Boston or Minnesota

Well, the first day of free agency is over and there have been some interesting signings. Once again, fans of Boston and Minnesota have to sit idly by while the big-name free agents disappear off to other teams - and later score on us. Rolston is back in Jersey, Brunette is back in Minnesota, Metropolit is a Phlyer (that's a mistake on our part - I've liked Metro, he always plays hard)

Oh, and Michael Ryder is now a Bruin. You should see him up and to the right, trying to score on a wraparound against Thomas. Searching youtube for clips, here's something I found:


Anything that makes a Canadiens fan cry is ok by me.

Hopefully, he won't have another season like last year's, but one more in line with his first three seasons. Maybe playing for his old coach, his old coach, and his old coach (that would be Claude Julien, who coached him in Montreal, Hamilton (AHL), and Hull (QMJHL, or "the Q")) will return him to scoring form. The Glen Murray buyout apparently may happen after Denis Wideman's salary arbitration. I'm still hoping.

Personally, I think the best move this offseason for the Bruins will be a getting Patrice Bergeron back. I hope he hasn't lost his touch.

As for Minnesota, they've got cap space, they lost Rolston, and they don't have four full lines of NHL forwards. Hossa, anyone? Demitra hasn't signed anywhere yet.

Mirtle has a list of who you should get your hopes up for just to get them dashed away when some other team nabs them. Speaking of those teams, ThePensBlog has a list of who still has to spend money to get up to the $40 million cap floor. I was going to quote them directly, but instead here's a quick rundown on what they had to say, since the numbers are about halfway down their post:

- Atlanta needs to spend 11 million, but they have Lehtonen to sign.
- Colorado needs to spend 3 million, with RFAs still to sign.
- Columbus needs to spend 9 million, but they have R.J. Umberger to sign
- LA needs to spend 11 million.
- NYIslanders need to spend 3 million.

And lastly, the Blackhawks are over the cap limit right now, which is fitting, since they have a dirty team right now. They picked up Brian Campbell for over 8 million/year, as well as Cristobal Huet for 5.something million/year. They still have Khabibulin, who is costing them 7 million/year. Cristobal Huet is not a backup goalie, so maybe we'll be seeing the 'Bulin Wall in LA, Columbus, or the ATL.

Tampa Bay was making a ton of splashy trades and signings prior to July 1st, so they're looking pretty alright too, but we still don't know if Melrose can coach. If he can, it could be a good year for them. If not, then Koules and Barrie are shown to be bad owners, but for the meantime y'all should enjoy the ride.

The Oilers are looking pretty good too...let's see who makes it into the playoffs from the logjam that is the Northwest conference.

Current Bruins 08-09 optimism meter: We'll make the playoffs.

How to: Write a hockey blog post

Jes Golbez just posted a blog post over on AOL Fanhouse about how average player salaries are going up. I think it's an interesting Case Study in hockey blogging. And with that, here is the first in what I hope is a series of "How To" items. After all, there's a long offseason ahead, and Eurocup only lasts so long.

Anyhow, here's the breakdown of his post:

Open with the subject of your post. Include snarky commentary if possible, and unless you're part of the Gawker network, link to the article to which you're referring:

Hello, my name is Captain Obvious, and I'm here with some news that will not leave you shocked, and/or appalled: The average NHL player's salary is going up ... WAAAAAAY UP!

If it involved more than one player's contract, or the Collective Bargaining Agreement, then the next step is easy: Crap on Gary Bettman.

While Gary Bettman and his evil council of rich bastards wanted cost certainty, I'm sure they didn't want to be certain that costs would just continue to inflate drastically each year.

Blockquotes: The master stroke of any post is the block quote. Choose the two most relevant paragraphs that are next to each other from the linked article. Mirtle is the master of this. It makes you look professional (hey, Wyshinski does it!) even if you aren't (see above blockquotes.)

Finally, you should ride out the end of the post with some opinion and commentary. If you can kick a southern team while it's down....GO FOR IT.

Now, if Jes Golbez actually reads this (Hi!), he may think I'm trying to say he's doing a bad job. I want to set the record straight: This is not the case. Jes is on Fanhouse for being a good blogger. They have a definite feel for their articles, which is comforting.

You can tell a professional blog and a less-than-professional blog by how quickly it ends, and if it does end slowly, how useful the last bits are. In fact, look at me ramble off into the sunset. See below:

The NHL is trying not to show weakness as the KHL is being turned into Russia's attempt at glory. They rewrote labor law such that KHL players can't give two weeks notice to leave for the NHL, and I believe I read somewhere that KHL players from the NHL will get paid tax-free, and won't take up cap space in the league. This is a WHA-esque threat, probably, and I agree with Jes: We should move teams north to protect them from the failing US Dollar.

Also, R.I.P. George Carlin.

Hossa, Please.

Theoretically good news from Boston.com today. Actually, that they're even talking about this as a possibility is good news. Will he forgive the team for hurting him in his Pens Debut?

Just think of it:

"Chara...passes up to Savard, to Hossa- HE SCORES!"

Just makes me smile. An elite sniping winger would do well with the original black and gold.

And from the Pensblog:

See?

The New York Times wrote a nice blog post today explaining why the draft isn't that exciting to me. Read the Slap Shot post here.

The Gist is, The kids getting picked right now (except the first 3-5 picks) aren't expected to be joining the big leagues for at least 5 years. I'll yap about rookies all day long, but the draft itself doesn't really catch my attention right now. Andy Brickley went last a long time ago, after all.

Today: Italy/Spain.

Longest Playing Goalies

I was browsing Hockey-Reference.com today, and I thought to myself, what's the longest amount of time anyone's played in goal? As the fine folks at hockey-reference.com keep track of playing time in minutes, I'd figure I'd just look it up. Unfortunately, they didn't have a page set up with that information already, so I looked at who had played the most time and then add it up myself. I included regular season and playoff minutes, so let's take a look:

Name	Season	Playoffs	Total time played
Patrick Roy	60,235	15,209	52 days, 9 hours, 24 minutes
Martin Brodeur:	57 208	10 522	47 days, 50 minutes
Ed Belfour	55 695	9 945	45 days, 14 hours
Terry Sawchuck	57 194	6 290	44 days, 2 hours, 4 minutes
Curtis Joseph	53 213	8 106	42 days, 13 hours, 59 minutes

So there you have it, folks: Patrick Roy is the longest-playing Goalie in the NHL, ever. Also, HR doesn't sort by minutes played.

Also, the draft is happening this weekend...Neither the Bruins or Wild had very good picks (I care a lot about that division title now...vomit.) I didn't watch it last night, and I'll be reading other blog's coverage, but the whole thing doesn't have me refreshing NHL.com every minute for updates. Besides, Netherlands plays Russia at 2:45!

Glen Murray

There are rumors that the Bruins may buy out Glen Murray's contract. I say go for it! He used to be a lot better, but I've been looking at his numbers, and here is a telling graph:

I deleted the years off the bottom. Sorry. It shows his career numbers (started small as he spent some time in minor leagues) And the peaks are a year after the Bruins got him back from the Kings. Regardless, he's been in decline since then, or for about the last 5 years. He hasn't had a positive +/- since before the lockout. And his playoff performance...big goose egg this year, with a -3 +/- rating. His all time playoff +/- is -15.

Which is not to say I think he's in the same luxury yacht as Bobby Holik. He's basically a decent player, but he's eating our cap space up right now and we can't afford to let that continue.

A tip o' the hat to Mirtle for the notification.

See you later, some NHL players

Well, the transfer agreement between the NHL and the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) has not been re-signed, and it makes me worry. Hockey is starting to gain ground in the USA, (thanks for being good, Detroit and Pittsburgh) and now there's nothing in place stopping the IIHF, including the Russan "super-league" from grabbing players from the NHL. Granted, not a lot of fans are exactly crying over Chris Simon leaving for Russia, but where he has gone other players will follow, especially if a player thinks they can make more money in Euros than they do in Dollars, and live at home rather than in this strange country that I - and 24 teams in the NHL - call home. I see young players coming to the NHL if given the opportunity, but people taking the route of Sami Kapinen and retiring to play in a European league of one kind or another.

I don't think we'll be seeing Sydney Crosby playing for the Gagarin Cup*, but depending on how his career goes I could see Pavol Demitra or Marion Gaborik leaving for somewhere in Slovak Extraliga if the money's right.

In 30 years, if the NHL and CHL play their cards wrong and right, respectively, I could certainly see the Stanley Cup and Gagarin Cup winners squaring off somewhere they both want to boost hockey fandom. Israel?

*Best-named trophy, to date. Disagree?

IIHF - NHL transfer deal expires.

Over.

Well, let's just say I'm not surprised. The wings were going to win this one. They dominated in the regular season. (remember that?) They dominated in the first round, after trading out the dominator Dominik Hasek for "backup" Chris "The Wizard of Oz" Osgood. They dominated in the second round, sweeping the possibly even more ancient (and beaten up - thanks for the memories, Chris Simon) Colorado Avalanche. They went up 3-0 against Dallas, and then decided not to repeat the mistakes of their 1942 forbears, despite losing 2 in a row to them. Then came the finals.

Game one embarassed the Penguins. Shutout. The Mule came back in game 2, still probably experiencing "Concussion-like symptoms." That worked out for Pittsburgh about as well as game 1. The series came back to Pittsburgh, and the Igloo (and two Sydney Crosby goals) turned the series into, well, a series. Detroit won game 4 away, leading to a threat of Detroit winning in 5, which would have been even more domination from the boys in Red and White.

Then game 5 happened. As discussed previously, I fell asleep pretty soon after Emrick said "we've seen 100 minutes of hockey" and so I missed Petr Sykora's thrilling PPG to win the game. I did, however, see Maxime Talbot's equally important goal with 34.x seconds left in the third. Fleury turned in 55 saves, 55 cup-winning goals turned aside (and I do mean turned aside...that man should consider controlling his rebounds).

In the end, in Game 6, we learned why Mike Babcock looks like he could be a mafia don: He sent out the red wings with one mission - kill. Get that cup. And they did. And how. Detroit continued to dominate, and while pittsburgh did a great job of getting goal number 2 on the 6-on-4, they couldn't repeat the feat that has only occured twice and tie the game with one minute left.

Zetterberg deserved the Conn Smythe - his defense against Crosby quite possibly defined the series. 10 European players helped the first European Captain lift the stanley cup, and Newfoundland managed to win it's first. I ALMOST forgive his dad for being such a class-A dickhead in Pittsburgh after game 4. No seriously, what a fucking asshole. I don't care that your kid played a part in winning game 4, doesn't mean you get to be an ass to the opposing fans. Or maybe it just means you deserve to have beer "spilled" on you. Who knows.

Regardless, the awarding of the Stanley Cup means one thing: It's the offseason. Shave off those playoff beards and take in a baseball game or something. Heck, I'm going to go live on a beach for a few days.

And one thing I've been waiting to say since the riots up in Montreal:

GO BRUINS!

I've got a bad feeling about this...

All of you 0 readers out there, this could be it. Today, June 4, could be the last day of the Stanley Cup Finals, and of the 2007-2008 season. However, it's not over until it's over, as Maxime Talbot proved on Monday, with that MONSTER goal with 34.7, 34.3, 34.1 seconds left in the period. (Which was it, again? Answer: WHO CARES? IT WAS AWESOME!)

So, with that, here's some thoughts on tonight's game:

- Everyone is playing hurt. I think Gonchar's mom's nose is broken at this point.
- Chelios still hasn't been playing. I think he won't play again tonight.
- will the Igloo melt, or will the Pens burn it down in front of the home crowd?
- They might be shutting off the outdoor JumboTron if there's a chance of lightning, which would cut down on the number of fans outside the building. No word on whether the Umbrella Corporation's Pittsburgh branch will be using the lightning for dastardly deeds, or to keep Hasek/Chelios alive.

I am looking forward and dreading this game in a big way. In one scenario, we get a game 7 of the stanley cup finals: Everybody wins, except whoever loses. In the other scenario, we get the red wings waking up against the penguins.

Everyone didn't practice yesterday, everyone's still tired after Monday's triple-overtime win, and somebody get Petr Sykora some more PIZZA!

Game 5 snoozer, for all the wrong reasons

Ok, so I'll admit: I fell asleep during the overtime. Petr Sykora did it, there's really nothing I can say about this game that hasn't already been said by the Pensblog. I guess the real question is how did he know? And will there be free pizza in the locker room for game 7 if necessary?

P.S. from WhoWins
HISTORICAL VICTORY PROBABILITIES: Up WWLWL @ HHVVH:
series record, all best-of-7 sports, all rounds: 25-3 (.893)
Game 6 record, NHL only, all rounds: 7-6 (.538)