If you don’t know, Movember is a month long event where guys grow mustaches to raise money to help fight prostate cancer.
But for some guys, Movember is year round. Here’s a look at a Movember Starting Lineup:
Tim Thomas, Goaltender
Timmy doesn’t rock the ‘stache through the whole year, but when he decides to grow it, it seems like his play gets even better.
Harold Snepsts, Defense
One of the most popular Canucks of all time has one of the most known hockey facial hair of all time.
Last season: 46-25-11, 103 points, 3rd in the Eastern Conference, Stanley Cup Champions.
Additions: Joe Corvo, Benoit Pouliot, Carter Camper, Stefan Chaput, Josh Hennessy, Jamie Tardif, Marc Cantin and David Warsofsky.
Losses: Tomas Kaberle, Mark Recchi, Michael Ryder, Shane Hnidy, Marc Savard, Brad Marchand?
Offense: Based off of an interview with Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli in the Boston Globe, the Bs will be losing star center Marc Savard, who has been battling post-concussion syndrome since March of 2010. ““Marc Savard won’t play this year. Nothing has changed in our monitoring. He’ll be examined and he’ll be declared unfit to play. Based on what I see, what I hear, what I read, and what I’m told, it’s very unlikely Marc will play again.”” Without Savard, the team loses a star center, who in twenty five games last season still managed 10 points. Though he is thirty four, his point-scoring ability will be missed by the Bruins offense. The other question from the forwards is the status of Brad Marchand. The twenty three year old restricted free agent has still gone unsigned. In his first full season with the Bruins “honey badger” scored 41 points in 77 games, and was top five in the teams +/- with a +25. He played with a reckless abandon, playing much bigger than his 5-foot-9 stature, making him a fan favorite. In not re-signing Marchand, the team loses a bit of grit with a scoring touch. (more…)
In the first game of part three, Joey’s Penguins traveled to Columbus to take on Rob’s Jackets. The game was pretty uneventful for most of the first period, until Ed Olczyk took a kneeing penalty. 26 seconds later, Ulf Samuelsson was given a major penalty and a game misconduct for checking from behind. On the ensuing five on three advantage, Fedor Tyutin scored to head into the first intermission with the Jackets leading 1-0. The Penguins killed off the remainder of the powerplay in the second period and at 7:17, Kevin Miller tied the game. About a minute later, Ray Whitney gave Columbus back its’ one goal lead. Early in the third, Kevin Miller once again tied the game. Two minutes later, Darius Kasparaitis gave Pittsburgh its’ first lead of the game. Ed Olczyk added a goal to give the Penguins some cushion and a 4-2 win. (more…)
After the regular season, we took it upon ourselves to vote for five major NHL awards (Hart, Vezina, Norris, Calder and Adams). With the awards show tomorrow night, let’s take a quick look back on how we did voting wise and who the frontrunner for those awards are.
Hart Memorial Trophy
This year, the three finalists are: Anaheim’s Corey Perry, Vancouver’s Daniel Sedin and Tampa Bay’s Martin St. Louis. Our voting had Perry, Sedin and Tim Thomas. With no disrespect to St. Louis, this is a two horse race. Corey Perry had 50 goals and dominated down the stretch. Sedin scored a career-high 41 goals, and 104 points, winning the Art Ross. Both guys are deserving but there can only be one winner. This season Perry’s been the most valuable to his team and should pick up the Hart. However, Sedin should win the Ted Lindsay (Most Outstanding Player) award.
Vezina Trophy
The Canucks’ Roberto Luongo, Predators’ Pekka Rinne and Bruins’ Tim Thomas are the finalists for the Vezina trophy. All three made were our finalists also. Thomas should dominate the voting and easily pick up the hardware this year, which would be his second Vezina (2009).
James Norris Trophy
Zdeno Chara, Nicklas Lidstrom and Shea Weber are the 2010-11 finalists. Our voting was close, with those three defenseman along with Lubomir Visnovsky finishing as our top vote getters. (Yes, I know that is four, but we had a 3-way tie for 2nd). Even though he’s not as well known as his co-finalists, Weber had a fantastic season and should win his first NHL trophy.
Calder Memorial Trophy
This year, the Sharks’ Logan Couture, Islanders’ Michael Grabner and Hurricanes’ Jeff Skinner are the NHL’s finalists. Once again, our top 3 voted finalists match the NHL’s. All three topped 30 goals and 50 points. Couture and Skinner will likely go 1-2 (in some order) but Couture is the pick here.
Jack Adams Award
The NHL’s finalist for the Adams Award are: Pittsburgh’s Dan Bylsma, Nashville’s Barry Trotz and Vancouver’s Alain Vigneault. Unfortunately, of those three only Bylsma made our finalists. The other two were Tampa’s Guy Boucher and New Jersey’s Jacques Lemaire. The frontrunner should be Bylsma, who almost won the Atlantic Division, despite his two best players (Crosby and Malkin) being injured.
Our voting produced 12 of the 15 NHL’s finalists. So who will win some of the other awards?
Ryan Kesler seems like the heavy favorite to unseat 3-time defending winner Pavel Datsyuk (a co-finalist) for the Selke Trophy. Datsyuk isn’t even going to Las Vegas for the awards show, and could be a sign of a new winner. The Blackhawks’ Jonathan Toews is the other candidate.
The Lady Byng was another Datsyuk specialty, winning four times since the lockout. However, he was in a fight this season which prompted the internet to joke that he “blew his Byng chances.” Last year’s winner Martin St. Louis is in the running once again, along with Lidstrom and Dallas’ Loui Eriksson. St. Louis will probably win the award again this year.
The Masterton trophy is given to a player that shows perseverance and this year’s field has gone through a lot. Ray Emery (degenerative hip condition), Daymond Langkow (neck injury) and Ian Laperriere (brain injury) all are deserving, but this year’s winner has to be Emery. Thought to possibly have trouble walking in the future (let alone playing hockey), Emery rehabbed most of this season, and signed with the Ducks in February, playing in 16 games (including playoffs) for Anaheim.
One other award up for grabs is the Messier Leadership award. Chara, Lidstrom and Phoenix’s Shane Doan are this year’s finalists. The Coyotes battled relocation rumors all season and still managed to finish fifth. Doan’s been Phoenix’s captain since 2003. He was also Canada’s captain in the 2007 World Championships. He should be recognized for his leadership.
After last night’s game four, I’m convinced that anyone outside of Boston and Vancouver can’t stand both teams.
In game three, Aaron Rome knocked out Nathan Horton. Rome was ejected and suspended and you thought it would just end there. That was far from the truth. With the Bruins leading, the game degenerated into scrumfest. Daniel Sedin, Andrew Ference (twice), Shawn Thornton, Alex Burrows, Ryan Kesler, Milan Lucic, Kevin Bieska and Dennis Seidenberg were all given ten minute major misconducts in the third period. Kesler and Seidenberg even dropped the gloves.
Throughout the series the two teams have traded alleged bites, taunts, slashes, elbows, sucker punches, anything you can think of. Point is both teams have made this a dirty, dirty series. Some have defended it, calling it “Old Time Hockey.” No, no, incorrect. Old timers would be embarrassed that this is the Stanley Cup Final. Think Bobby Orr would approve of finger taunting? No way.
Last night the bad blood kept going late in the third period.
It all started (restarted?) when Brad Marchand and Christian Ehrhoff were racing for a puck in the Canucks’ zone. Marchand tried to go around Ehrhoff and with his free hand, semi-clotheslined the defenseman. Daniel Sedin skated in and Marchand ducked under him and dumped him. The only positive thing Keith Ballard did all night was grab Marchand. (Sidenote: Wow, was Ballard brutal last night.) That put the Nucks on the powerplay. Of course, it didn’t last long, as Alex Burrows slashed Tim Thomas’ stick out of his hands, resulting in a Thomas chop across Burrows’ calves. Burrows had enough and round two began. Kesler and Zdeno Chara picked up misconducts, and their nights were done.
Rooting for a team in this series is almost like picking the lesser of two evils. One can root for a team because they hate one team more, but feel dirty for doing so.
Last year’s Cup Finalists, the Blackhawks and Flyers, are pretty well unliked throughout the league, and they didn’t even garner this much negative attention.
My plea for both teams for the remaining games is play for the Stanley Cup. The trophy that’s awarded to the best team in hockey. Not the team who can dive or scrum best. Play hockey, guys.
After tonight’s Vancouver’s Game 1 victory, thanks to Raffi Torres’ late goal, there are a few things we learned during the course of the game.
1. Daniel & Henrik are brothers
Over the course of the whole game, Doc Emrick may have mentioned that the Sedins were brothers about 479 times. I can understand mentioning it a couple times, because there are new viewers, tuning into the playoffs for the first time. But it seemed like everytime the two were on the ice together, or passing to each other, it was mentioned. Reminded me of the old Slapshot quote from Ned Bradon to the Hansons, “are you guys brothers or something?”
2. Zdeno Chara is in the wrong spot on the Bruins PP
Not that I’m an NHL coach or anything, but one would have to think Chara would be more effective on the powerplay at the point with his booming shot. Yeah, Chara can out-muscle and outreach any other player on the ice for a loose puck in front of the net, but wouldn’t you want a 106 MPH cannon on the blueline? Just ask Ryan Callahan how that feels.
2a. Speaking of the Bruins PP….
The Bruins’ powerplay woes were well known coming into the series, going 5 for 61 (8.2%) heading into tonight, including an awful 1 for 26 (3.8%) on the road. Their woes continued tonight, as the team went 0 for 6, making their overall playoff percentage 7.5. Yikes. The Bruins failed to score on an early four minute powerplay and a 1:32 two man advantage, and it cost them in the end.
3. The referees’ whistles work
Through the first two periods, the refs called 13 penalties for 28 minutes. Thankfully they put the penalty whistles away in the third period. Unfortunately they still had to blow them for offsides and icing, which seemed to happen every couple minutes during the game. Hopefully Game 2′s flow is a bit better.
4. Patrice Bergeron tastes like chicken
At the end of first period, there was a scrum, in which Patrice Bergeron got mixed up with Alex Burrows. Bergeron picked up a minor for roughing; Burrows a double minor for roughing and a quick snack. Video appears to show Burrows biting Bergeron. Burrows should probably be suspended, but do the importance of the Stanley Cup Finals cancel that? I’d bet no, but regardless, Brendan Shanahan has his new job cut out for him.
5. Thomas & Luongo are good; really, really good
Everyone knew these two guys were two of the best goalies in the league, as shown by their Vezina nominations. But their play in Game 1 was stellar. People talked about nerves, as these guys are playing in their first Stanley Cup. If either one is nervous, neither is showing it. Both goaltenders made “wow” saves throughout the game to keep their team alive. When Pierre McGuire said, “the goaltending has been magnificent”, he actually wasn’t exaggerating for once. The two were the clearcut first and second stars of the game, combining for 69 saves on 70 shots. If these guys keep playing this well, we might have a bunch of 1-0 games in our future.
(note: Andy chooses not to pick series his team is involved in.)
In year’s past we have seen goaltenders steal the show in games of the Stanley Cup Finals, from names like Antti Niemi and Cam Ward, to Marc-Andre Fleury, and the many who have come before them, goaltending plays an important role when it comes to winning the Stanley Cup. This year, goaltending will be the key to winning the series, and that pressure lies on the backs of two men, Boston’s Tim Thomas, and Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo.
This could be the closest cup finals we have seen in years (PHOTO: Nhl.com)
This year is a story of two similar teams, The Vancouver Canucks, and The Boston Bruins. Both teams put up similar point totals throughout the playoffs (Boston has 159, Vancouver has 140) Both have similar goal totals (Boston with 58, Vancouver with 50) and both are close in total shots on goal (Boston with 573, Vancouver with 562) And they share the same number of blocked shots(262). The only real difference being the powerplay percentage (Vancouver at 16.7% and Boston at 11.4%). This shows just how important goaltending is going to be for both teams in this what should be a very close series.
Tim Thomas (PHOTO:AP)
For Tim Thomas, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing to get to the finals. He has let in multiple goals in 12 of 18 games this postseason, but has managed to make a playoff leading 560 saves along the way, as well as maintain a .930 save percentage and 2.29 goals against average. So this is by no stretch a bad playoff for Thomas, but there have been some goals, some by fault of defense, some by his own doing, that he would have liked to have had back. Thomas has stolen multiple games this playoff season (Game 5 Vs. Montreal, Game 2 Vs. Philadelphia, Game 2 Vs. Tampa Bay)
Against Vancouver, he will need to be on the top of his game, as he is looking at one of the most dangerous duos in hockey (Daniel and Henrik Sedin), as well as one of the hottest scoring centers and shotblockers in the playoffs (Ryan Kesler). He needs to not be as aggressive as he was last round against Tampa Bay, they lit him up when they got him moving out of the crease. And when Vancouver gets on the powerplay, Thomas will have to be their best penalty killer, bar none. If all of this comes together for Thomas, the biggest prize in hockey could be his.
Roberto Luongo looks to give the Canucks their first cup win. (PHOTO:AP)
For Roberto Luongo, the name of the game this playoff season has been consistency. Luongo has maintained a 2.99 goals against average and a .922 save percentage making 487 saves along the way. He, like Thomas, has had games he would like to forget, including the series vs. Chicago in which he was pulled 2 times after rough starts. But after that first round, he has caught fire making at least 20 saves in each game since, including brilliant performances in game 2 against Nashville (46 saves), and games 4 and 5 against San Jose ( 35, 56 saves).
Against Boston, Luongo will face shots from all angles, especially from snipers Nathan Horton and David Kreijci. Not to mention he will have to face Zdeno Chara’s bombs from the point, this is where one of his best assets, his shot blockers, will come in handy. Luongo needs to stay calm under pressure as Boston has a habit of bringing offense in waves, if he can ride out their offensive storms, he will give his team the best chances to win. He also needs to work on rebound control, multiple times he has lost the puck on simple shots he should have covered, and those have turned into scoring chances, and goals. If Luongo can do these two things, the Canucks will have the best chance to end their 41 year cupless drought.
(PHOTO: NHL.com)
We see in the ads “History will be made”. Every year, that sentiment rings true, but this season, the men in the pipes will be the ones who will hold the key to changing that history. Will the Bruins win their first cup in 39 years? Will the Vancouver Canucks win their first cup since coming into the league 41 years ago? The answer lies between the pipes.
As the NHL season comes to a close, we are going to vote on the NHL Awards, and four of us will pick one candidate each to “campaign” for. At the bottom, you will see balloting and the final results.
Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh Penguins by Joey
Throughout October and November, Marc-Andre Fleury was Public Enemy Number 1 to the local fans and a butt to jokes at the water cooler around NHL fans at work. Then one crisp November evening, Fleury won a game, it was a shutout, it was at home and he had the fans backing him once again. Since that point Fleury was himself again. But what makes him Hart worthy is his play after the Penguins lost Crosby and Malkin after the turn of the New Year. While statistically, Fleury may not be a standout choice, this award is for the player deemed most indispensible to his team. As solid of a defensive pairing as the free agent tandem of Zybnek Michalek and Paul Martin were in junction with the coaching of Dan Bylsma to keep the Penguins ship pointed in the right direction, this season collapses to potentially out of the playoffs without Marc-Andre Fleury’s play. It’s only proper to go beyond numbers, and recognize the true MVP this season.
Corey Perry, Anaheim Ducks by Realdeal
Perry emerged in 2010-11 as a superstar. The Ducks forward was the only NHLer to notch 50 goals this season, securing the Rocket Richard trophy for most goals. But his play down the stretch where he carried the Ducks from 11th to 4th propelled him into the Hart debate. Perry scored 19 goals in his final 14 games, helping his team to a 10-4 record during that time. He tied for first in game winning goals with 11, and tied for first with 18 special teams goals (14 PPG, 4 SHG; tied for 5th in both individual categories). Despite his borderline play (104 PIM), Perry is the choice this year.
Daniel Sedin, Vancouver Canucks by Gabbi
The real league MVP is one half of the league’s most dynamic duo; Daniel Sedin of Sedin Twins & Co. This season, Daniel lead the league in points (104), was fourth in goals, and third in assists (his brother Henrik had the most assists). His 18 power play goals were also tops in the league, and his game winners third most. The only thing Sedin was not tops in the league of was penalty minutes and shooting percentage. All in all, the top five man should be number one this year in the Hart Trophy voting.
Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks by Cujo
When you vote for Hart, consider voting for Jonathan Toews, the other guys are all impressive, but they do not come close to what Toews has done for Chicago. The Blackhawks captain led his team in points (2nd in goals, assists, powerplay goals, +/-, and shots on goal), and also led the team in game winning goals. In the regular season when Chicago struggled, Toews kept going strong, when he wasn’t scoring, he was setting up goals. Especially in the month of February during a important playoff point race, he scored 3 game winning goals against conference foes Minnesota, St.Louis, and Columbus.
Final Voting (more…)
As the NHL season comes to a close, we are going to vote on the NHL Awards, and four of us will pick one candidate each to “campaign” for. At the bottom, you will see balloting and the final results.
Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers by Gabbi
This might seem like a homer-analysis to some and that’s fine. But from a statistical standpoint, Henrik Lundqvist was left out of the running for the top goaltender in the league. Yet again. Of course, this year, Tim Thomas is an essential lock for the trophy. So why not throw Lundqvist a bone and give him a nomination? In his 6 seasons as an NHL starter, he has been nominated in his first three seasons of play, and has never won. He’s currently the only goaltender in NHL history to have 30 or more wins in his first 6 seasons of play (he held the record for 5 and shared the record of 4 with Ron Hextall). This season, he was 36-27-5 with a 2.28 Goals Against Average and a .923 Save percentage. Comparatively, his GAA was 7th best in the league, his save % 8th, Wins 8th, and lead the league in shutouts with 11. (He was also #4 in the league with shootout wins.) King Henrik should have been recognized for his efforts in New York as their team MVP and have been given a Vezina nomination.
Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks by Joey
Though considered a bit of a long shot, Roberto Luongo should garner more of your thought, attention, and votes for the Vezina this season. Like the fine wine adage, he only gets better with age as he has set personal bests in goals against (2.11 GAA) and his best save percentage (.928) since joining Vancouver. Though there is a few standout netminders that have even better statistics, its more than simply a numbers game. As solid of defense as Vancouver has, it’s not like Luongo only faced 20 shots a night and had tea and crumpets in the goal crease most games. Quite often he more than kept his team in games providing his fair share of pavement on the Canucks road to the President’s Trophy. Don’t get fooled just by numbers. Strongly consider Roberto Luongo for the Vezina.
Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators by Realdeal
Rinne had a breakout year for Nashville, posting career highs in wins (33, 14th in the league), GAA (2.12, 3rd), Save Percentage (93.0%, 2nd). He also posted six shutouts, good enough for sixth in the league. On a team with a less than potent offense, Nashville relied on Rinne, and he rose to the challenge. He put the Predators on his shoulders and led them to fifth place in the West. He faced the sixth most shots in the league (1771), more than the other two Vezina finalists. Put Rinne on a team with more offense support like his Vezina competitors and he surely increases his win total.
Tim Thomas, Boston Bruins by Cujo
Tim Thomas should get your vote and pretty much be a lock for the Vezina trophy. While the other goalies may have had great seasons, nobody could touch Tim. Setting the record for highest regular season save percentage with .938 , throw on top a league leading goals against average of 2.00 and 9 shutouts, and you have yourself prime Vezina material. Another note of interest, this was the second highest amount of saves he’s had to make in his NHL career in one season (1699, the MOST he’s faced was 1796 in 06-07).
Final Voting
