Some of you may have thought that with the offseason here there would be no content. Well, that's just not true. Tomorrow is FREE AGENCY FRENZY, today the US Olympic team invites are announced, and...
The Boston Bruins' strength and conditioning coach is here to PUMP (clap) YOU UP!
This week's episode is Abs and Lower Back, or the "Core" as its called. Get to it, cheering is tough work and you want to be in shape come October. Warning, video is like 20 minutes long.
Bruins have selected Jordan Caron as their first round pick. He's a RW out of Rimouski, Quebec. Initial research says that he is a little bit overly aggressive, and tends to think he's a little larger than he might actually be. Coming out of a 67 point, 66 PIM season with Rimouski Oceanic of the QMJHL, he's definitely a project pick. He will have to tone down his ego a little bit, but that's the price you pay for picking 25th overall. He does bring a hard shot, though, which is of course always welcome on this team.
So if any of you are wondering what my thoughts are on the NHL, I did an interview recently. Here's a paragraph:
"If the Bruins trade Kessel, he will light it up for some other team. He got 36 goals this year and was out with Mono (haha, oh kessel...) to boot. The only guy who got within 10 goals of him was Ryder. I worry that they're going to make a move like trading Kessel or Bergeron, but both are excellent. Depending on how contract negotiations go with Kessel, I could see him moved."
So the NHL had their 500/seat awards show last night and whaddya know? Boston cleaned right up. First Manny and Timmy accepted the Jennings award for fewest goals against from Lemelin and Moog, the last Bruins goalies to get it. Here's them accepting it:
Highlight quote is about 24 seconds in, Tim Thomas drops the one-liner
"Want me to say hi to your wife, Manny?"
All together now: OH SNAP!
Of course, we all knew that award was coming. The other three coming up were Claude Julien for Coach of the Year, Zdeno Chara for Defenseman of the Year, and Tim Thomas for Goalie of the Year.
Next up is a bunch of other awards that no one cares about, like the Pavel Datsyuk award for public speaking.
Then the Vezina. Now, if you don't know Tim Thomas's backstory, this may have less significance. He was drafted back in 1994 by the Nordiques, and when he showed up to training camp with the Avalanche a couple years later, he outplayed everyone but didn't get the gig. He played a couple games in the ECHL (think AA in Baseball), then the IHL (think A in baseball) and then went off to play in the Finnish leagues. He kept bouncing around, playing for the US world championship teams as well as Finnish and Swedish league team, with occasional stints in the IHL. in 02-03 and 03-04 he played for the Providence Bruins pretty regularly (and got called up to the Boston Bruins in 02-03 for 4 games and posted a 3.00 GAA). Then the lockout happened and he played for Jokerit Helsinki, a Finnish league team. Coming out of the lockout, the Bruins were thinking of picking up either Niklas Backstrom or Tim Thomas. Both were up for the Vezina trophy this year, so the scouts had some idea of what to do. Anyhow, through all of that Thomas didn't give up and kept on playing. Recently he signed a contract that will pay him 20 million dollars over the next 4 years, and I couldn't be happier for the guy. Here's the guy from Armageddon presenting the award:
Second is the Jack Adams award for Coach of the Year, presented by former Bruins coach, Pat Burns. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Jack Adams Award goes to..."Mon Ami, Claude Julien."
Third comes the one we've all been waiting for ever since the Vezina was handed to Timmy Tank Tornado Thomas: The Norris. Perrenial Norris winner Nik Lidstrom is in the running, high-scoring defenseman Mike Green is too, and of course Zdeno "Big Z" Chara. Chara was another guy who may not have ever made it to the NHL, and to be honest he wasn't that great at the beginning of his career. He's gotten better, though. Much better. Let's watch:
Lord, that was awkward. At least he remembered to thank his wife before being played off.
Anyhow, a great night for everyone from Boston up for an award, and then I'm sure the afterparty was great too or whatever, but I didn't pay 500 to attend so I can't be sure.
Sigh...I wish there was some real hockey...
Draft in a week or two, but the Bruins have the 25th pick so it's tough to get THAT excited about it. I updated the hockey-reference pages for Thomas, Julien, and Chara, and they are just awaiting approval at this point.
A couple of things are happening around, but not THAT much. First, I took your suggestions from the other day and put up an ad on the Scott Walker Hockey-reference.com page. Go check it out!
Second, last night was the 500th sellout at Fenway Park. Here's Jason Bay on the day:
"We got the win, but more importantly I got to meet Bobby Orr."
Wait, what?Hell yes. This is awesome. Right before the seventh, Bobby came out of the Green Monster and said hello to Jason Bay. They were apparently supposed to meet before the game, but didn't have time. This is better because we all get to see it. Sox and Dawgs has a video, to boot.
Bobby Orr smiling is one of the finer things in life. Here are some more pictures of that:The only NHL trophy Bobby Orr didn't win twice was rookie of the year.He sure did win 2 Stanley cups, though. Putting Boston in for 3rd-longest draught for cups of an original six team, in front of Toronto (1967) and Chicago (1965).Whatta Guy.
Oh, and tonight is the NHL awards show. Tim Thomas, Zdeno Chara, and Claude Julien are all in Vegas right now getting ready to maybe win the Vezina (best goalie), Norris (best defenseman - Orr had 8 of these, which still stands as an all-time record), and the Jack Adams Award (best coach), respectively. Good luck to them!
The awards show will be on Versus at 7:30 in the US, CBC at 8:30 in Canada. GO BRUINS!
One blog I really like is Brodeur is a Fraud. They do a lot with goalie stats.
Recently they weighed in on The Vezina from a statistical standpoint. It will be given out Thursday. Some think that Steve Mason should get it, because he played more games than Thomas. Here's what BiaF had to say about that:
"If Tim Thomas played in 11 extra games and faced his usual shot rate, he could have allowed 5 goals against and lost every single one of them, and he still would have a better winning percentage and save percentage than Steve Mason."
Burn.
It's a great article, instead of copying and pasting everything here, I'll just point you at it: Brodeur is a Fraud.
Good luck to all the bruins in contention for awards on Thursday night (I think it will be shown on either Versus or NHLNetwork), and all the ones playing in the celebrity poker tourney Thursday morning.
Oh and this saturday the NHL Network will be showing a marathon of all of the Stanley Cup Final games, starting at 8am. Game 7 will be shown at 8pm. Conversely, you can watch them now on hulu. Game 7 was the most-watched NHL game in the US in 36 years.
This video's been making the rounds on the internet, it's awesome. CBC showed it at the end of their game 7 coverage.
(link for folks who it doesn't load for automatically)
If hockey coverage in the US was half as good as this, more people would tune in.
Next year, I want to see our boys in black and gold make it past halfway through the playoff montage.
KPD is talking some smack about the Bruins not re-signing Kessel this offseason. I'm not even going to link to it, it's in the globe, go read it there. Hey good job Kevin, I bet you riled some folks up with that one.
As y'all know by now (and I hope you were watching, ridiculously good game) the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup last night.
Wow. Great season, y'all. The draft is in a couple weeks, and awards, and free agency frenzy day, and...
Well, what I'm saying is even though it's nice out, hockey isn't totally dead. I'll put my take on updates here as need be, but likely won't be doing a daily thing until it makes sense again. So I urge you to subscribe to a feed over on the left there, or to the emails. I don't spam or anything, and you don't have to keep coming back and hoping there's something new all the time.
The saying goes, "there's always next year." Next year starts today. GO BRUINS!
I feel much better after that last post, and sorry to all who had to witness it. Sports fandom isn't always the prettiest thing, but it's a ton of fun and what's why we're here. Anyhow, here's some lazy links to wet your mouth before game 6:
Puck Prospectus: Is David Krejci the next Adam Oates, Mark Taylor, or Jason Allison?
Here Comes the Bruins: It's a couple days old, but the Star Wars/Stanley Cup comparison still rings true. (and is super-nerdy.)
Matt Kalman points out that the Bruins have a grand total of 4 (5 if Alberts signs with the Flyers) draft picks this year. Might be time to cancel that trip.
Game six is tuesday night, party at your house! Go Pens. Check out thepensblog and Puck Huffers for that stuff.
I've been on a pretty even keel about this, but I figure I should just dump all of this right here, right now. Mom, you might not want to read this one. It's not very good and there's a lot of swearing. Fuck You, Carolina Hurricanes.
Fuck Scott Walker, Fuck Eric Staal, Fuck Chad fucking LaRose, fuck Ryan Whitney too. Oh and Cam Ward, I hope you get passed over for olympic consideration. Really, I do. Brodeur/Luongo/Fleury instead or something.
Did I mention fuck Scott Walker?
You know when that game 7 went to OT, you got a bad feeling. When Scott fucking walker batted the fucking puck out of the fucking air to score a fucking fuck fuck goal to end the bruins season, you were either going to kill the guy next to you or internalize it.
That's why you, my wonderful reader(s) is/are getting this rant now.
Like that time you were on summer vacation and the dog you'd had since you were 6 couldn't make it up the stairs anymore so you had to take it to the vet on the way to the beach, and you didn't cry until months later.
But enough about me.
Where was I again? Oh yeah. Fuck the Hurricanes.
Fuck you, you little bitches got swept the fuck out of the Eastern Conference Finals by a team that finally played like they should have against your little shit team.
Yeah, I said it. Jersey probably should've beaten you, but Brodeur was too busy thinking about donuts to stop 2 goals at the end of the last game.
I don't like your team. Yes, it's because you beat us in the playoffs. You'd feel the same way. Go ahead and hate or gloat or whatever. The Bruins wouldn't have rolled over and been swept by the Penguins.
And you did. You couldn't handle the power of the Malkin-Crosby supergroup. Whatever.
Mrs. Walker, I hope you have a full recovery. I also hope Scott gets hit by a bus. Is that wrong? No, that's being a sports fan. Fuck 'em.
One last thing: the commenting folks over at Canes Country? Nice talking to you hicks, but you should learn things like what a reply button thread is on the SBNation platform, and what "humor" is. Also whoever that one guy was during game...6, maybe? Anyhow, commanding folks to do your bidding over the internet is, well, it's not really all that amusing or interesting.
Just like this rant. But I had to get it out sometime, and now was as good as any.
And even after all that, I loved beating the Habs.
I know these are a little old, but they're hilarious. Go pens.
Krejci re-signed, and that is awesome. Kessel for 4.25 cap hit for 4 years? 5 years? Almost definitely a pipe dream. I am not Chiarelli, I am not a GM, I'll leave that to him.
Last Versus broadcast of the year. Hoping for 2 more pens wins on NBC before mid-june.
Also, happy birthday to me. One year ago today, I became a Bruins season ticket holder. It has been an awesome year, and I look forward to next year. For now, I just get to sit back and watch the two teams who managed to battle to the finals go at it. Go Pens.
Well, the finals start Saturday at 8pm. Pens vs. Wings, rematch of last year. Crosby touched the cup. I like it.
We here at Hockey Blog Adventure would just like to offer this little ditty:
LETS GO PENS!
Because seriously, who wants another red wings cup? Let someone else get it for a change. Granted the pens have won twice more recently than the Real Black And Gold, but what can you do now?
On a side note, Fuck Scott Walker and I hope he cried when his little bitch team got swept. Not that I'm bitter or anything.
Back to the finals talk: There are two pens fan blogs that I read on a near-daily basis (i.e. they are in my google reader). They are thepensblog and Puck Huffers. One is written by a bunch of dudes, the other by a bunch of chicks.* They're both hilarious and definitely worth a read. Puck Huffers claim to fame is creating the Staal Drinking Game. thepensblog, well...what haven't they done?
*"chicks" may not be the preferred nomenclature, please email me or something and I'll switch it to broads or gals or whichever you'd like.
Other stuff:
R.I.P. Pete Zezel. He was 44. I didn't know him, as a player or otherwise, but 44? Damn. Seems to have been pretty universally loved and possibly the man who played too well so they need to put those L brackets onto the faceoff dots.
blah blah Crosby touched the trophy and Zetterberg didn't.
Lidstrom is hurt, this could be the difference. Oh yeah, Datsyuk too.
Malkin and Crosby have been pretty dominant so far.
Everyone on the Bruins got hurt, had surgery, but you know that.
For your daily dose of Cornelius saying random crap about hockey and other stuff, follow me on twitter: @HBAdventure. Fun stuff.
The Bruins will be playing...
sigh...
Development camp starts in July, Training camp in September, preseason late september, season early october, first home game should be late october due to Circus.
Howdy, y'all. Later today (around 4 or 4:30 pm EST, depending on where you look on the official website) the Memorial Cup Finals will be taking place on the NHL Network in the US and Sportsnet in Canada.
Watch it. Every memorial cup game I've watched this year has been stunning. The champion team from the three Canadian Major Junior leagues each travel to one host city and the four teams play round robin, followed by a play-in round, a semifinal, and a final. The top of the round robin automatically plays the final, but the bottom team could - if tied with the third team - play in all the way to the finals.
This year, the Windsor Spitfires are that team. They're taking on the Kelowna Rockets. And I suggest you at least flip over from Wings/Hawks a couple times if you've got NHL Network.
Some Bruins prospects have been playing in the tournament, including Yannick Riendieu, who the Bruins signed back in february or march or somesuch. He's been lighting it up, but was eliminated by Windsor recently.
Just wanted to let everyone know that until we know what the cap is actually set at for the 09-10 season, we won't be diving into what space the Bruins have left and how to fill it.
Surgery updates: Kessel's was successful, he's out for 6 months. Krejci will be out 6 months. Thornton is getting similar surgery to Kessel. Kobasew has busted ribs. Recchi got busted ribs in game 4, scored in games 5 and 6, got a kidney stone out the night before game 7, and then played 22 minutes.
We really want Axelsson back.
797 GP, 103G, 184A, 276PIM, 1000HockeyIQ
vvvv Read this article on Tuukka Rask below, too vvvvvv
There’s this guy, plays for the Bruins. He likes to stand between the pipes, and he doesn’t like to let the puck past him. He’s lost four games in the playoffs so far. He had some moderate success in Europe before coming to the USA to play the pro leagues here. And his name is not Tim Thomas.For starters, he’s much younger. Born March 10, 1987, Tuukka Rask is only 22. He’s also a little taller, and a little skinnier than Timmy T, and is building a similar reputation wearing Black and Gold. He first came to Boston when Toronto (who picked him up 21st overall in the 2005 entry draft) decided they’d rather have a tested veteran goalie in Andrew Raycroft than a green rookie from Finland whose only notable statistics were, oh, I don’t know, playing for the Ilves Tampere Junior A team and putting up a 1.86 GAA in the regular season, and then upping that to 0.87 GAA in the playoffs (with a .973 save percentage) on his way to 9 wins in 10 games with 6 shutouts. And that’s just when he was 18. Two years later, representing Finland at the World Junior Championships, he posted 2.11 GAA and .940 save percentage, and was given Top Goalie honors and named to the All-Tournament Team.But enough about his childhood. He’s a Bruin now, what has he done for us? First, he’s been pretty solid for the P-Bruins. In his first season (07-08), he allowed 1 or 0 goals in 18 games out of the 45 he played. That went a long way to his 2.33 GAA and .905 save percentage. Not terrible for a rookie. 27-13-0-2 was his record, with 1 shutout (March 19 2008, 27 saves). He also got to play a game for the grownup B’s, which he won 4-2 against They Of Little Faith, the Toronto Maple Leafs (November 20 2007, 30 saves). During December of that year, he put up 1.83 GAA and .924 save percentage. Won his playoff debut April 16 in overtime against Manchester (The Kings’ Monarchs) and got his first playoff shutout two days later against the same chaps. He won six straight playoff games that year, and was voted by his teammates to be the team’s rookie of the year (Martone Group Rookie of the Year award). They were eliminated in the second round by Portland.
His play held up during the preseason for this season, where he posted a .952 save percentage, beating out those guys we know and love, Tim Thomas and Manny Fernandez, who were both below .900 for the camp. The big guys decided he could use more pro experience, and I trust their decision. Tim Thomas played out of his mind this year, which is a big part of the reason the Bruins got where they did (the scoring a lot part didn’t hurt either, but that makes a second tangent, and that’s just too far. Back to the man at hand). Tuukka played another huge year this year, 57 games of 2.50 GAA, .915 save percentage hockey. His record of 33-20-0-4 with 4 shutouts showed a contribution of 61.4% of the possible points over his 57 games, which was better than the team’s overall 58.8%, but now I’m just getting nerdy. He also played a little bit in the NHL, 60 minutes to be precise. You may remember the game against the Rangers at home on January 31. Tuukka made 35 saves on 35 shots which, according to most people, constitutes a shutout. He then wound up back down with the P-Bruins to finish their strong season (2nd overall in the East). In the playoffs, Tuukka is now continuing his steady play. In his 13 games so far, he’s got a 1.76 GAA and a .943 save percentage, which I find to be pretty good. He’s 9-4 in those games, and the P-Bruins are currently tied with the Hershey Bears (Battle of the Mascots), one game to one, as the Bruins come home to Providence for three games.
So where to from here? Well, first there’s the rest of the playoffs. We can’t look too far ahead of ourselves, because it’s the Eastern Conference Finals in the Calder Cup playoffs, and the Bruins-Bears winner will be playing the Moose-Aeros (a much less-interesting mascot mashup) winners for the ultimate minor league prize. But what about next year? Well, with Manny an expensive UFA, we will likely not be seeing him, which would definitely give room on the bus for Tuukka to sit down, but at the same time, signing Tim Thomas for a lifetime supply of Bentleys didn’t help Tuukka’s $3.2 million cap hit self. While I, being an unnecessarily large homer, want the Fin to see a good chunk more time in the spotlight wearing Black and Gold, I worry that the numbers won’t add up (or, rather, will add up too much). For now, let’s watch the Calder Cup, root root root for the home team, and watch as our best goalie prospect protects Providence’s pipes while going for the prize. I, for one, hope we get to see a whole lot more of this kid.GO BRUINS!
Posts
