Blog Hiatus: NHL Lockout Rant

So, I was silly enough to start a hockey blog around the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. And with my luck, the NHL would lockout the season, cancel any training camps and preseason games, and whatnot. But I'm sick of supporting a league that locks out its players (and ultimately, the fans) every 10 years or so. Regardless if the season is cut in half, why should money get in the way of things? Its different, if you're salary is being cut from $80,000 to $65,000 and having to make due, but getting salary cuts to players making over millions of dollars? To me, that's being selfish.

The worst part, is that players are willing to play in Europe, for millions of dollars less, than what they would make in North America. It plainly shows that there is no such thing as loyalty to a team or city. In the video that the NHLPA released (I'll link the video at the end of the post), the players would like some sort of way to play, but still be in negotiations. Yes, because you'll have time to sit in a board room after practices, road trips and games. Plus, that defeats the purpose of the owners locking out the players.

And why are people blaming Gary Bettman? He's only doing his job, same with Donald Fehr. But this nonsense has to stop. Players need to stop being greedy, owners need to stop being greedy, and they (including the league) need to look at what really drives the NHL; the fans. Owners are bringing in the millions, while some families need to starve themselves to go see an NHL game (I'm being a little drastic, but you get the point). Everything from concessions to merchandise to tickets are insanely expensive ($4.00 for a bottle of water for goodness sake). If the NHL wants it to be about the fans, then make it about the fans. If the players want to play, let them play! Easier said than done, but why is it that the Stanley Cup has the chance of not being won by a team for only the 3rd time in over 110 years? As a die-hard hockey fan, I'm sick of it.

Lets let the NHL players flee to Europe, put hard working players over there out of a job, and bump up the kids in the jr. leagues, who don't care about the money, who just want to play. Give young North American players a shot, because the current NHLer's are just taking the league for granted. There's no clear winner in this lockout, but there's no clear good guy.

As for this blog, any changes or updates that surface, I'll do my best to report it. As for hockey, I'll support the Ottawa 67's at Scotiabank Place this year, cause I have a feeling that'll be the only team to play in the Bank this year.

Here's the message the NHLPA sent out via YouTube about the current lockout.

Post Free Agent Market

First off, a very belated "Happy Canada Day" to all the Canadian followers of this page. I had a great day celebrating our nations birthday, and I hope you did as well.

But with me being a hockey nut, before I headed out to Parliament Hill to enjoy the festivities, I was glued to TSN, SportsNet, NHL.com, essentially any channel that would have the Free Agent signings of the day. Obviously, the biggest transactions didn't come until Independence Day, for all the American followers. You know which names I'm talking about -- Zack Parise and Ryan Suter -- both getting matching contracts to the Minnesota Wild for the same amount of time. Is this a smart investment for Wild GM Chuck Fletcher? With Heatley and Koivu already stealing the show, the two new Wild players have already pumped more season ticket owners than previous years, which makes you feel for the rest of the team, that it takes two free agents to pump that kind of dough into the Xcel Energy Center. Regardless, the West should see a good change of players heading elsewhere to different teams.

I would expect to see Jaromir Jagr pump some people into Dallas to see their games, signing a 1-year deal for about $4.55 million. And "BigMac Jokinen" (for those who don't get it, I'll post a video at the end of this post" is headed to Winnipeg to indulge in their second year as a new franchise coming from Atlanta.

I won't really touch base on the draft, because there isn't much to talk about... yet. Sure, Nail Yakupov went first overall as expected, doesn't necessarily make him a number 1 forward. I would like to see Malcolm Subban play behind Tuukka Rask this season, but wouldn't be surprised if he spent the year down in Providence.

That pretty much sums up this Sunday morning. Hope to report soon with more off-season news! Happy summer!

Video courtesy of HockeyWebCaster;

"If the Great One tells you to eat a burger, you better go eat one"

Stanley Cup and NHL Awards

So, first off, congratulations to the Los Angeles Kings for a stellar post-season to capture Lord Stanley's Cup. They're an impressive team, with a great group of players who deserve every moment. And kudos to New Jersey, a group of experienced, talented players who turned heads all post-season.

With that in mind, with the NHL Awards being on Wednesday, as well with me being from Ottawa, I was overjoyed with the hardware the Senators took home. Erik Karlsson won the Norris Trophy as top defenceman, and he was up against Nicklas Lidstrom and Zdeno Chara, a former Senator. With Lidstrom retiring, I think it would've been a great homage to send him out with another trophy. Karlsson is a young player with a ton of potential, and he will have his time once again, and hopefully with the Stanley Cup.

I wanted coach MacLean to win the Jack Adams award, but reading up on how Ken Hitchcock took the struggling St. Louis Blues, and leading them to a 43-15-11 record after replacing Davis Payne, is really something.

With the NHL draft coming later tonight (its 2:15 EST as I'm writing this), I'm excited to see who will be drafted. In my opinion, its much more open this year, meaning there isn't a clear-cut player who we all know will go number 1 overall. It will be an exciting few days of NHL transactions that are going to unfold. 

Game 5 in New Jersey

The Devils managed a 3rd period push to save themselves for another game. Game 5 is in NJ on Saturday, and I really hope this is the start of a comeback. What a story that would be eh? Coming back from 3 games down in the final to win the Stanley Cup.

I was in disbelief, but very impressed, at the speed of LA's power play this evening, scoring almost immediately off the draw. But Martin Brodeur would let that be the only puck go by him.

It's a shame that the NHL isn't following the every-second-day game rotation, but it works because people can sit back and watch it on a Saturday, plus I wouldn't be able to watch it on Friday anyways.

Let's see if LA can follow the trend of winning the Cup on the road.

Stanley Cup in Los Angeles

The new NHL champions could be crowned as early as tomorrow, with LA having a 3-0 threshold on New Jersey for the Cup Final. It would be great to see the Kings win it for the first time in they're existence. Although I love and respect Martin Brodeur, I would love to see him hoist it one more time. As for a return next season, I would love it, but wouldn't be surprised or disappointed if he decided to hang the skates for a final time. I loved that his father was able to watch him play in game 2, but a shame they lost in overtime.

But you have to be impressed with Los Angeles and how they've preformed this post season. They're perfect on the road, and only 2 loses out of the 17 games they've played. An amazing record for an 8th seed that people predicted to be eliminated by the Vancouver Canucks. Speaking of the Canucks, if Los Angeles can win game 4, this'll be the third year in a row the Canucks have lost to the cup champion team (Chicago in 2010, Boston in 2011, and LA in 2012). Must be bad luck somewhere in Rogers Arena, or maybe the Sedins have the wrong skates on.

Back on track, it'll be nice to sit down with some friends, watch the game, have a few beers and watch the cup potentially be won at home since Detroit won it in 2008 (people can quote me if I'm wrong). Hope you all are able to watch and enjoy what may be, the last NHL game this season before September comes.

Cheers!

Stanley Cup Finals and I'm an adult

A little while has passed, and quite a bit has happened in the hockey world, and my personal world.

New York defeated Washington in quite the hard-fought series. As much as I wanted the Capitals to win (because NY took out Ottawa, and it would be quite the underdog story for Braden Holtby), it would be cool to see a Lundqvist/Kings final. But, I want New Jersey to take it to the Cup final. Give Brodeur one more. That would be a sweet way to retire; do the ol' Scotty Bowman "sign your papers during the ceremony" sherrah. Although he does have a couple Stanley Cups, some hardware, including two Olympic medals, one more can't hurt?

And, today, I officially became an adult. I'm still trying to comprehend it actually. I can now legally vote, own a credit card, buy lottery tickets, all that jazz.

18 years ago my mother gave birth to possibly the greatest thing since the telephone (who are we kidding). All jokes aside, I'm blessed I've been able to spend 18 wonderful, amazing years with an amazing group of supportive and wonderful people. Many thanks to those who have made my life a blast to live!

Capitals-Rangers off to a game 7

Washington managed to hold off the Rangers to a 2-1 win. Tons of things caught my eye this game;
- Braden Holtby needs to get control of his rebounds. If they're low shots, there isn't much he can do rather than try to get control of them. If they're up at his chest, no excuse. Cover it with your glove, and if it ends up coming down, tackle that son-of-a-gun.
- Rangers need to get to those rebounds. They're taking shots, and leaning back and waiting what happens. Crash the net, get in Holtby's face, and clean up the garbage.
- The Rangers goal with 0:30 seconds remaining shouldn't have counted. There was a Ranger forward right in his space (when I said crash the net, I didn't mean literally), granted he was pushed. The shot went wide, but Holtby couldn't get his blocker out to try to get a piece. It ends up going off a player, and in. Classic goalie interference.
- Washington is way to cocky. On the scoreboard, they were showing previews to purchase tickets for next round. That's a huge slap in the face to the Rangers, and I'm sure they took it as motivation cause they scored following the faceoff. If there are hockey gods (hopefully not on the Rangers side), New York will win at home and play New Jersey (who thought of that?).

But speaking of the conference finals, Los Angeles vs. Phoenix, and New Jersey vs. WAS/NYR. I definitely didn't have this in my pool.

NJ tops Philadelphia

So once again, I missed a pivotal game in the semi-finals. I was at my church recording some music during the NJ-PHI game, but a quick look at NHL.com let my eyes to see that the Devils had defeated one of the Cup favourites. So tomorrow night, I can finally sit down to (hopefully) watch Washington force a game 7 at the Verizon Center.

I did get the chance to watch some IIHF action. Having two spares in a semester really pays off around this time. I caught the 2nd and 3rd periods of the Slovakia-Switzerland match, and the third period of the Russia-Germany game. A few things caught my eye while watching these games;
- International play is much more intense. This might be due to the fact its an international tournament and not a league game (I've never watched a DEL/KHL/Sm-liiga/Elitserien match), the larger ice surface, or the fans, which are alot like soccer fans (which I've been to my fair share of games)
- A lot more scrums and pushing & shoving after the whistle

The last time I watched an international game was the 2010 Olympic gold medal game (didn't pay attention to much IIHF play last year). But that could be because its the Olympics, with the majority being NHL'ers.

I'm gonna miss hockey once the playoffs are done. Kinda regret starting this blog so late in the hockey season, but better now than never, I'll be prepared for next season!

Phoenix vs. Los Angeles? Say What??

The day before the Stanley Cup playoffs begin, I would've loved to meet the guy who said the Coyotes and Kings would battle in the Conference final. I bet he was laughed at more than a school boy with a note from his mom in his lunch.

But it happened, last night Phoenix knocked off the higher seeded Predators. Personally I didn't watch the game because of work, but followed the IceTracker with the GameCenter app on my iPhone. Jeez... an NHL club who is currently owned and operated by the NHL sure knows how to put up a fight. Plus, on the day of a potential new owner.

I myself, expected a St. Louis Blues-Philadelphia Flyers final, but that may change. Much better than the supposed Vancouver-Pittsburgh final. But, this playoff season has definitely been full of surprises. Being an Ottawa fan, people asked me why I didn't have faith in my hometown team to make the final. I gave them a list of reasons;
- We're obviously in our first year of rebuilding. But MacLean deserves the Jack Adams award simply because we managed to make the playoffs in our first official year of rebuilding. As opposed to Toronto, who hasn't seen post-season glory since before the lockout.
- Sure, we pushed the best team in the league to 7 games. But there are tougher teams than us. We would've played Washington, and some nights Braden Holtby would literally be a brick wall
- Our defence would've collapsed in no time. Watching the Rangers throw themselves at every shot we took, and how quickly they could crash our net, defence is still something we can work on

I give best of luck to the rest of the teams left standing... except the Rangers of course. I'd love to see Washington come back and take them out.

Inaugural Post

Seeings how I over-crowd forums with posts on my views of the game, its players, its rules (don't get me started), and almost everything else, someone suggested I begin writing a blog, where I can let my mind go free and wander off.

That's not what I'm going to do...

This is mainly my views on what happens in the NHL. As well, I am using this to show off my graphic work that I do for the video game NHL 2004 (More information can be found here). Leave comments if you agree, disagree, or want to take me for dinner sometime.

Thanks, and enjoy!

-Nick