| Not just three times in two weeks, but twice in Toronto in four days. Not digging this new unbalanced schedule. I understand the desire for divisional rivalries, but they've overegged the pudding a bit, I think. It seems like every night I turn on the TV and I'm seeing the same games, Bs-Leafs, Bolts-Canes, Pens-Flyers, Canucks-Sharks, etc. Gets a bit repetitive...
Old time hockey in Providence on Saturday night between the Baby Bruins and the Portland Pirates. 23 fighting majors and 239 minutes in penalties in the third period alone. Sheesh. Slap Shot lives.
Goalie is simultaneously the most fulfilling/rewarding position on the ice and the most frustrating/annoying. Definitely takes a certain personality type. If I absolutley couldn't play goalie (a real possiblity sometime down the line, the knees won't last forever), I'm not sure where I'd play. Probably D. I understand the need for defensive responsibility, I don't mind moving people out of the front of the net, and I can skate backwards pretty well.
The thing with Patrice Bergeron is that he's just so young still. He's got three seasons of NHL experience under his belt and he's still just 21, still more improvement and development to come. Once they dumped Thornton, moved Bergeron up to center on the #1 line, and put together the Boyes-Bergeron-Sturm line, things really started clicking. More good things to come, I think (Boyes was just a rookie last year too).
There are some really big-name young guys out there, Ovechkin, Crosby, Malkin, guys who are sucking up a tremendous amount of hype and attention, and deservedly so. Great players, to be sure. But there's another whole set of tremendously skilled young guys bubbling just below the hype line, guys like Bergeron and the Staal brothers (and there are more of them on the way) and Kopitar and Thomas Vanek, those guys aren't getting as much hype or name recognition but they are going to be stars in this league before too long. I can't wait to see what Phil Kessel is like five years from now (when he's a ripe old 23). Just hope he pans out well. That was the big disappointment for the Bruins in recent times, they had a tremendous draft one year where they got Thornton and Samsonov in the first round, so much potential, so much hype and hope, but neither of them ended up being the player that people hoped they would be. I mean, look at Samsonov, guy won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 97-98 (over Thornton no less), and he's pretty much done squat ever since. Sometimes all the potential in the world doesn't mean squat (remember when Eric Lindros was being touted as Gretzky's successor, and they were calling him "The Next One"?). I think that's why so many folks are relieved about Ovechkin and Crosby, they seem to be living up to the hype so far.
-Ricardo
"2 minutes by yourself and...you feel shame, you know...and then you get free" | 
