Out of the Blue – Glitch in the Matrix Edition

After seeing the Blue Jackets’ stumble out of the gates to start the season turn into an out of control spiral rivaling a five-year old drawing with a crayon, I thought to myself that I have seen this fish before. I hearken back to the NHL’s return from the lockout and how the season had started for the Penguins and see some similarities in the 2-9-1 start for the Blue Jackets.

After the Penguins won the draft lottery and the right to draft Sidney Crosby, the Penguins decided to spend rather freely after years of running the franchise like a business and kept their salary low and their roster young. Suddenly big dollars were spent bringing in Sergei Gonchar, Ziggy Palffy, John LeClair, and Jocelyn Thibault (Mark Recchi was signed before the lockout occurred).  Somewhat similar to the Blue Jackets’ aggressive offseason that seen James Wisniewski, Jeff Carter, Vinny Prospal, and Radek Martinek enter the fold.

Top 10 Goalie Masks For Halloween

Today I’m looking at what I think are the top 10 goalie masks for Halloween, it’s for fun, so just enjoy it! Happy Halloween!!!!

10. Jason Voorhees –  The “Jason” Mask

Yes, yes,  while he never did play hockey, he had to make the list for his nice piece of facial gear. If he did play hockey, you can bet he would see plenty of “slashing” calls coming his way (I’ll stop with the bad jokes now). This mask is always associated with Halloween when anyone thinks of hockey involvement in the holiday.

9. Carey Price – “Jacques Plante/Winter Classic” Mask

“Somebody’s watching me” is the feeling you get when you see this mask. The extra set of eyes is just incredibly creepy. The elongated face on a mask is enough to distract anyone, fan or player. Price recently won his 100th  regular season game with The Montreal Canadiens.

8. Jacques Plante

(Photo: NHL.Com)

Looking like something straight out of Hannibal Lecter’s personal collection, Plante’s mask drove fear into his opponents. (okay, maybe it was him, not the mask) It also drove him to a Hart trophy, 7 Vezina trophies, and 6 Stanley Cup titles with Montreal. Entered The Hockey Hall Of Fame in 1978.

Back to the Roots

After seeing a sloppy 9-8 Jets win over the Flyers on Thursday night, thanks to a tip from Reading Royals reporter Candice Monhollan, I decided to send myself to the minors.  Last night’s ECHL game featured the Trenton Titans (Flyers’ affiliate) hosting the Royals (Bruins/Maple Leafs’ affiliates).

There were no TV timeouts, no in-game advertisements, just straight hockey.  At one time the play reminded me of a men’s league game at a local rink.  Obviously, these guys are professionals, but there were no lengthy stoppages.  The whistle would blow and the players would be lined up, ready for the next faceoff.

The pace of the game was unbelievable, with all of the players constantly hustling on every shift.  They know they can’t take a shift off or they might ruin their chances at moving up to the next level.  Most players at this level aren’t high NHL draft picks, so they have to impress to advance.  It was a nice change of pace from the NHL game I’m used to watching. These guys aren’t playing for money, making at most $525 per week.  They play for the love of the game and a glimmer of hope to make it to the NHL.

1-7-1 And Feeling….Good? You Bet!

It has been a rough start for The Blue Jackets, 0-7-1, and finally, after a James Wisniewski induced supercharge, the zero is gone, we are now 1-7-1. The celebration on the ice was reminiscent of a Stanley Cup Playoffs victory, my own twitter timeline even acted as if we had just won a Stanley Cup. It was a giant party, and it seemed funny, how can we be feeling good after just one win?

From what we saw on the ice, players seemed to have a confidence in them that has lacked through the first 8 games. To start off, defense, yes you heard correctly, DEFENSE, we actually had it. (Despite one Aaron Johnson mistake

A little bit of wiz goes a long way (photo: Getty Images)

leading to the 1-1 goal). With Wisniewski, the defense seemed to know what it was doing, and the combinations seemed to work well 5 on 5, as well as on the PP/PK.  Wisniewski was great, blocking shots, and rocketing his own from the point. Clitsome seemed to regain his old form, as did Tyutin and Russell, all making key defensive plays to break up Wings scoring chances. John Moore looked like a completely different player out there, played pretty confident on the ice, had a few minor slip ups, but overall, 110% better than he has been. He also scored his first NHL goal. This defense, helped add to a great goaltending outing by Steve Mason.

Lindros Back in Orange and Black

Today on 590 Radio in Toronto, Eric Lindros officially confirmed that he would play in the Winter Classic Alumni game. He also hinted at a Legion of Doom reunion with John LeClair and Mikael Renberg. The trio only spent three years together, but terrorized the NHL for 305 goals and 666 points.

To remind everyone how dominant the Legion of Doom was, here’s a video from the ’95-96 season.

Shutout King

On Saturday night, October 22nd, history was made for the Los Angeles Kings. Goalie Jonathan Quick recorded his third consecutive shutout victory for the Kings in a 1-0 triumph over division rival Dallas. His steak of 188 minutes and ten seconds without allowing a goal is the longest in team history, eclipsing Rogie Vachon’s previous record of 184minutes and 55 seconds established in 1975. Quick also becomes the first NHL goalie to earn 3 straight shutouts since Columbus’ Steve Mason in 2008.

Quick’s streak began on October 18th in Los Angeles, the Kings’ home opener against the St. Louis Blues in which Quick stopped 26 en route to a 5-0 win. Two nights later in Phoenix, Quick stopped 28 in a 2-0 victory over the Coyotes, a tight checking affair where some big saves, particularly late in the game, were the difference. Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Dallas was a goaltending duel between Quick and Stars’ goalie Andrew Raycroft, a game in which Dallas outshot the Kings and Quick made Jack Johnson’s lone goal with 4:58 remaining hold up.

A Good Problem to Have

Alec Martinez, Davis Drewiske and Slava Voynov

Having depth on defense is good, but making the choice of who to keep and who to send down is a difficult decision to make. This is the situation that the Kings management is currently facing. With Drew Doughty on injured reserve, Slava Voynov got the call to fill his spot and made his NHL debut in the Kings home opener. That left Davis Drewiske in the same position he was in most of last season: a healthy scratch. With speculation that Doughty could return to the line-up on Tuesday against New Jersey, who stays?

Before Doughty’s injury, the Kings were carrying seven defensemen. Why not just play Drewiske? During training camp, Voynov impressed the Kings management so it was only expected that he would get the call. Chatter amongst Kings fans is whether or not they think Voynov should stay with the big club and what should become of Drewiske. There are a couple of questions that I have my own answers for.

Why not keep Voynov and send Drewiske to Manchester?

Breaking Down the Booth Deal

The Florida Panthers started off this season 3-1 but with two 3-0 losses (to Washington and Buffalo), GM Dale Tallon continued to shake up the team’s roster.  After a summer of rebuilding virtually the entire roster, it seemed like the wheeling and dealing was finished.

Last night, the Panthers shook things up and traded away mainstay forward David Booth (along with Steven Reinprecht and a third round pick) to the Vancouver Canucks. In exchange Florida received veteran forwards Mikael Samuelsson and Marco Sturm. Booth had been with the Panthers for the last five seasons, playing 309 games, scoring 87 goals and 167 points. He had missed most of the 2009-10 season with a concussion, and hasn’t been the same since. In 2008-09 he hit the 30 goal plateau and finished with 60 points. Last season he put up a respectable 23-17-40 but wasn’t the same player before the hit, finishing at a -31.

So why trade a promising young forward for two aging forwards?

Fantasy Hockey: Goon Leagues

We’re all in the run of the mill regular fantasy hockey leagues where guys like Henrik Sedin and Henrik Lundqvist get big points.  But what about the other side of an NHL roster?  Where else can Zenon Konopka go #1 in a league but in a “goon” league?

This season six friends and I started a Goon League on Yahoo, where you get five points per PIM and one point per hit.  (Yes, I know hits don’t necessarily make a guy a goon but we needed another category.)  Unfortunately, there is no way on Yahoo (or ESPN) to give additional points for suspensions (I could have used some extra points from Kris Letang’s this week).  To be honest, I’m in three head to head leagues and the one I care most about is my goon points league.  It’s something different from the same old regular fantasy leagues.

As most people aren’t familiar with this type of league, here’s a couple tips for goon leagues:

Reacting To 0-5-1

Small note before reading: I wrote this for fun, don’t take it too seriously.

Well here we are, 6 games into this season, and The Columbus Blue Jackets are 0-5-1, officially the worst team in The NHL, the only team to have not won a game thus far. From what I’ve seen online through twitter, facebook, and multiple hockey forums and websites, there seem to be a common 5 reactions to this start among fans:

1. Shock/Confusion:

“Speechless” “What is going on with this team!?” Seem to be the top comments in this area. It is hard to fathom this start, even without James Wisniewski. Surely all of our players would be scoring, and our defense would be good at…well..defense! It is quite a shock to see such a slow start, but when you look at the past three season, it shouldn’t be, in October over the past three years we went 7-3-1, 4-6-0, and 6-5-1.

2. Lets Riot: Yes, ala Vancouver after The Stanley Cup Finals last year, blow stuff up, break things, just all out anarchy in the streets of Ohio. Well with the weakened economy rioting is a bad idea, not to mention you could get arrested (unless you don’t care about that, go for it.) And in the current times, I’d worry more about the loose bears,lions, wolves, and monkeys roaming around doing all the damage for you.