akustyk

I can barely imagine this is the first time ever such thing happened in a game. Wisniewski's bad luck is that he was caught *cough* red handed *cough* and just for the sake of proper PR the league will have to impose some punishment. one game suspension seems very unlikely (mind you... you need to do Cooke or Pronger to get a game or two in this league) but a financial fine and public statement from the league is viable to me. they do need to keep the public image of the sport clean, more or less. at the end of the day... Avery can cry as much as he wants what the punishment would be if it was him doing the gestures, but let's not loose one simple fact about this: if it wasn't for Avery Wisniewski wouldn't be doing the very gesture at all. the very Sean is the reason why people get pissed that much. and I'd rather see the league first getting rid of Avery's antics. fix the problem at its source, don't just cure symptoms... my 0.02 EUR

13 for me, including tonight's Boston win. not a spectacular percentage overall, but considerings it is season's first weekend it's not actually bad

Friday, October 8 Carolina San Jose New Jersey Detroit Buffalo Washington x2 Saturday, October 9 Phoenix Columbus NY Rangers Dallas Montreal Toronto New Jersey Tampa Bay Philadelphia Anaheim Chicago Los Angeles Sunday, October 10 Boston Los Angeles Edmonton

RIP Bob.

I don't think we'd fit him under the cap, but I always liked him and would love to see him play a season with Wings. a bonus like Willa Ford is sure fine with me

Mike Ricci long gone, and now Rob Brind'Amour retiring... jesus... there's no real churro left in this league... congrats to a great career! perhaps not a Hall of Fame, but sure bet worth admiration.

absolutely yes. he's a clutch playoff performer, great team guy and a good pest to have. what's not to like, huh?

congrats Hoss! thanks for the memories and good luck drinking with your mates in Stara Lubovna! gratulácie!

don't really like it. the music is bloody boring and the "old" look of shots doesn't help either. I like the one of The Nephilim much beter

you're right, but it's not exactly what I meant. I'm not OK with the way the lottery works now. because it ultimately does give unfair advantage. lottery is obviously better than straightforward allocation (worst team automatically picking first, 2nd worst as second etc.) but if it's Blackhawks after Penguins then it's pretty obvious to me, that there has been a little too much reward for dwelling at league bottom for extended period. if it was me I would scratch the current concept and give every team fair 30-to-1 chance to land 1st pick. because why should those bad teams be rewarded for being bad - it's unfair. and if that is too extreme and the NHL wants to have the theoretical parity - give non-playoff teams 21-to-1 chance and the playoff teams 48-to-1 (so that the 1st pick goes on average 2 for each 3 years to non-playoff team) so there's bias towards higher picks for non-playoff teams, but playoff success doesn't always mean lower picks. my point is: Pittsburgh and Chicago (likely) are two teams which deliberately tanked for a number of years and now succeed because of this. it seems thus, that the reward they got for sucking is an advantage over other teams. and I don't think this is fair. IMHO as of now there's no good equilibrium between rewarding continuous success through scouting/development and rebuiding throrugh draft. it seems to me, that the later makes winning cups a bit too easy.

the way Russia played - that means barely generating any teamwork it's no surprise to me to see them being burned by organized Czechs. the only Russian players to generate some space and passes were Datsyuk, Gonchar and at times (in the final game at least) Kovalchuk. and all primadonna's like Malkin (who was absolutely brutal in this final game) or Ovechkin were so totally predictable that Czech defense could win it even with Chokemanek in net. message to Bykov and rest of Russian staff: next time bring some team players in. guys who know how to pass and have any awareness of the situation around them. not just sole knowledge where the goal stands. it's a team game, not a skill competition

as much as I admire Flyers run, it still pains me to think this retarded franchise wins a cup. and I actually want Hossa to lift the cup finally. he's a great guy and I most certainly wish him to win the grand prize at last. it is a little bit pity, though, to see yet another "suck for a number of years and collect high picks" team succeed and I'd like the league to reconsider draft lottery should the Blackhawks win this year. I didn't like it for years, because it's artificial parity and plain and simply unfair to good GMs. but now with (likely) 2 champs winning the cup thanks to years of sucking and having high picks - maybe the NHL will finally realize this is not parity but giving unfair advantage to bad teams. because it's not like the Penguins of 2004 or Blackhawks 2006 were so bad to finish at the bottom of the standings. they did it very much on purpose. and that's unfair

only watched 3rd period but it looked like Russians have been all over Germans, but they simply couldn't connect. I also spotted some situations where refs definitely swallow the whistle to not let Germans go shorthanded so it felt like watching Wings play Canadian teams in playoffs glad to see Pavel scoring game winner. truth being said I don't quite get Russian coach who overplayed his two lines. nor I get why Malkin is so terribly bad at generating any team work... I mean... pass or at least look around to see if there's anyone to join the play...

on the other hand, you can play basketball in the sh* coldest corner of bloody Alaska. and hockey isn't exactly "native" in desert, so to say... in Europe the most popular sport is the snoozefest called soccer. by far margin more popular than basketball or ice hockey. and it's only just because every single kid can kick some ball wherever he/she wants to. and hockey has the limitation of temperature :/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSjEngPzQN4 another shanny classic

round 6 pick. not from Europe but it still bodes well for his NHL future, mind you

I wonder why they didn't let the Penguins-homer Wyshynski write this piece...

Sharks mean MacLellan wins his cup as head coach. Hawks mean it's Hossa finally getting his name on it. I'm leaning towards the Sharks, but both options are fine with me. as for East... Bruins, then Habs then Philly. all of them behind whoever wins West.

good! I'm most likely going to Cologne on Sunday to shoot some photos at the games. which most likely includes Russia absolutely love this news

Friday: Chicago Montreal Tampa Bay San Jose Dallas Colorado Vancouver Saturday: Pittsburgh Ottawa Detroit Toronto Buffalo x2 New Jersey NY Rangers Washington St Louis Phoenix Los Angeles Sunday: Philadelphia Calgary Colorado Minnesota

ditto on that. seeing Bourqie lift his cup was simply amazing.

the annual NHL "Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby Crosby" showcase game? no, thanks... not gonna watch.

atdhe stream is working now. for those who still look for live stream...

Friday: Ottawa Minnesota Anaheim Saturday: Calgary Pittsburgh Buffalo NY Rangers Montreal Florida Atlanta NY Islanders Detroit [x2] Phoenix San Jose Los Angeles Sunday: Washington Toronto St Louis Philadelphia

dive! dive!