New England Hockey Talk

[bethandlouis]

Are you coming Jason?

[snid]

I'm not skating, as I haven't done that in years. But I'm pretty sure I'm on RSGD's list for a ticket to the game.


Wait, what thread am I in? I thought this was the one for the UVM / UNH game. What am I talking about here?

[MGB Boy]

Oh come on, you can skate Jas, you're up to it. I'll check at Cairns and Leddy, both of 'em usually have an hour and a half of "public skate" on the weekends. I think Leddy's is on Sunday, but Cairns might be on Saturday. Gotta check that. I was just there last night, if I'd been thinking ahead I could have checked the schedule...

There are never too many cupcakes. That's all there is to say about that. Far as I know, none of the early "maybes" are in (if they think they are, they haven't said so), so it will be a "select" crew who attend.

-Ricardo

[snid]

The UVM game is next weekend, right? That's what my calendar says anyway...

[bethandlouis]

So 24, very manly, pink frosted cupcakes for the 4 of us. Got it. Now when are we going to meet so I know if I shoud make them Friday or Saturday

[MGB Boy]

Quote: Originally Posted by snid (original)

The UVM game is next weekend, right? That's what my calendar says anyway...

Yup. Saturday, 1/20.

Quote: Originally Posted by bethandlouis (original)

So 24, very manly, pink frosted cupcakes for the 4 of us. Got it. Now when are we going to meet so I know if I shoud make them Friday or Saturday

Make 'em Friday, I say. I'm sure we can find something to do Saturday afternoon.

Stupid Bruins still haven't figured out how to play 60 minutes in a row. Skated the Sens right off the ice in the first period, came out with a 2-0 lead. Managed to get only three shots in the second period, but still held on to the 2-0 lead. Gave up 19 shots in the third period, gave up four goals plus an empty-netter for the 5-2 loss. Pathetic. Granted, there were mitigating factors. Two of our top D were out (Chara, Stuart), and a third went out with an injury after about 2:20 of icetime (York). That left them with just five defensemen, and two of those were rookies just called up from Providence the night before (Lashoff and Sigalet). The Sens picked up on that, the rooks were on the ice for three out of four of the non-empty net goals. It got ugly at times, lots of bad decisions being made in periods two and three. I suppose it's a testament to the game he played that the Ottawa press gave Timmy the third star. Not every day that a goalie gives up four goals in the final period and loses 5-2 and yet still gets one of the three stars. Still, it was good to see Kessel back on the ice. Knowing how hockey players can be and how hockey locker rooms tend to be, I gotta think they're calling him "one ball" now. Just a guess. I wonder if they fitted him with a neuticle.

I see your Caps got a dose of Vitamin F (for "Flyers") tonight. That tends to work to get a team back on track. And of course my boy Marty continued his awesome season tonight, picked up a goal and two assists (and the #1 star) in a 3-2 win over the Pens. Nice.

-Ricardo

[bethandlouis]

Didn't get to see the game. I did see the final seconds of the Flames/Wild game. Kiprusoff is some kind of awesome goalie. 5 shut-outs this season. Maybe every team needs a Dion Phaneauf? What's happening with the B's is the same thing happening with the Caps. The caps have 2 of their top defenseman out (both for some broken bone (I think a foot and a wrist)). It's hard not having those key players. It's really hard giving up a 2 goal lead. Welcome to my world..

The Flyers can't seem to get anything done this season (except lose). They had some pretty exceptional games (won against Anaheim). But it seems that they have to play their absolute best hockey every game to walk away with it. They have good players, just a bad system. Simon Gagne and Peter Forsberg should be getting more points.But they aren't getting breakaways like other teams get (they're pretty slow skaters) and they don't have any real good D in front of the goalie. Esche used to be a pretty good goalie (as far as I could remember) even though he's playing 2nd fiddle to Niitymaki (who seems to be pretty good (even though his save percentage is a paultry .892). They are just fighting a losing battle this season. In the off season they need to take a good hard look at who they are as a team. And maybe they'll come back stronger next year.

I mean Flyers Suck! But I hate having a "sure-thing win" in the league.

[MGB Boy]

Another give-away by the Bruins, but at least it wasn't as catastrophic as usual. They actually showed life in the third period instead of collapsing completely, and they held on for the "loser point" in the shootout. They gave Miss Finland a start tonight, and he played well, although I thought the tying goal with just a couple minutes left was a softie. The Bs really took it to 'em in OT, but couldn't crack it. Oh well. Dale Arnold made a good observation though, he pointed out that Jan 10 was the one year anniversary of the Bruins calling Tim Thomas up for good from Providence. Since then, the Bs have played 82 games, and Timmy has played in 72 of those 82. That's just too damn many, if they keep this up they're going to run him into the ground before the playoffs even get here. So it's really important for either Hannu to shape up or for the brass to trade for a competent back up.

And Marty & co beat the Caps, too. But I wasn't gonna say anything about that...

-Ricardo

[jcsinnh]

Hi, Louis

[bethandlouis]

I have the game on Replay. Started to watch it but then fell asleep in the 2nd period. When I came home from work it was 5-4 so I don't know what the final was. I'm beat this week! I did some calculations on how much I worked this week and found out that by going in today I will have overtime (nearly 8 hours of it). I couldn't figure out why I was so tired. There's a good reason!

I woke up and the Bruins game was on. It was very confusing going to sleep with hockey on and then waking up with a completely different game on. So I went back to sleep.

Everytime Hannu has played the announcers always say that he's got to get more playing time in to give Timmy a rest. But it seems like everytime Miss Finland plays they lose. (BTW what's with all the goalies being Fins?) That certainly is no break for Timmy. At least when Johnson is playing the D shows up. It also looks like Kolzig has lost a lot of weight. He doesn't fill as much of the net as he used to. He looks very thin.

[MGB Boy]

Maybe you should send Kolzig some chocolate!

Finland is to goaltending today what Quebec was in the 80s and 90s, it's *the* big goaltending hotbed. You've got Miikka Kiprusoff, Kari Lehtonen, Vesa Toskala, Niklas Backstrom, Pasi Nurminen, Jani Hurme, Mika Noronen, Jussi Markkanen, Antero Niittymaki, Fredrik Norrena, and of course Hannu Toivonen, all from Finland. More in the pipeline too, such as top Bruins prospect Tuukka Rask. All from a country with a population less than that of Massachusetts. Maybe it is, as they say, something in the water. That country just churns out goalies.

As for Hannu, I think it's approaching the point where his season might be shot. I hope not, but maybe. Once you get into that spiral where your confidence is gone, and you start questioning yourself, start messing with the fundamentals and mechanics that made you successful in the first place, that's hard to pull out of. I think it would probably be in his best career interests if the Bs picked up an older back-up (someone like Belfour) who could handle a game here and there so Timmy doesn't get over-worked, and just ship Hannu down to Providence and let him play out the year there, getting more icetime and working on his game away from the NHL spotlight. I'm just not sure he can pull his current season out of its nosedive in Boston.

-Ricardo

[bethandlouis]

Wierd. I thought I heard someone say that the Fins were taking over the league. But I didn't know to the extent.

When they had that other goalie from Providence did Timmy get a break? I just think that it's what is working now so they're going to go with it.

Well I'm off to see Night in a Museum. Have a great night!

P.S. Louis says Hi, and wants to know why John's not coming to UVM hockey night.

[bethandlouis]

Holy Crap! What a huge waste of time watching the Caps game was. Luckily I was able to turn the channel fast enough to see the game-tieing goal in the Isles/Devils game. With .7 seconds left on the clock Satan scored on the Devils (that made me laugh a little too).

Back to the Caps. They were out shot tonight 53-13. There is no way that any team can win a game with those kind of numbers (unless there's a Timbuit in goal for the other team ) It was terrible. i think i saw Belfour sitting in a chair sipping a Pina Colada at some point. How can they expect to win anything with the kind of game they are currently playing. (Don't get me started on the lack of officiating that was happening in that game). The defense seems to be mailing in their games now. Might as well put cardboard representation out there if they are going to play this badly. That would be cool scale rod hockey, it would at least be better than the junk they are playing now (and interactive). There was a lot of yelling in my house tonight and the words were bad Louis had to calm me down a couple of times. Sometimes I hate Replay TV. It only allows me to go back and punish myself again.

Now back to that Isles/Devils game. I root for the Isles (but only because of Witt). i was really hoping that it would go to a Shoot-Out as the goalie that has the longest contract vs. one of the best goalies in the league. It would have been cool. But there was a softie goal on DiPietro. I went to the Isles website (to make sure I had the name spelled correctly) and saw something that was very scary or funny (depending on what kind of humor you have) http://www.newyorkislanders.com/team/roster.asp.

Shortly after the Caps loss I went to the Washington Caps Boards to see what kind of stuff was being said. One of the threads that was there was that Kolzig should retire. Right now Kolzig is the only defense that the Caps have. It upsets me to see that there are so many people that call for the head of the goalie. I understand that if the goalies don't make the stop they can't possibly win, but when you only put 13 shots on goal in a game and give up 50+ there isn't a goalie in the league that can pull out that kind of miracle. If by some divine magic the Caps would have pulled a win out these are the people saying that Kolzig should have been on the All-Star game! I don't look at Olie as some kind of goalie god but he's one of the solid goaltenders in the league and he's been in the league for a while (Roloson has a lot of snow in front of his net-just looked very wierd). He really hasn't been playing in the NHL for that long (96-97 was his first full season playing 2nd fiddle to Carey (that seems like so long ago)). He won the Vezina in 99. But I understand the the aging goalie (turned 37 this season) is certainly something that will not win games (although he got an assist last game (maybe they just have to make him part of the offense play a bit of ironman hockey))

Have a great nght, back to Hockey day in Canada. Who won the day games today?

[MGB Boy]

Quote: Originally Posted by bethandlouis (original)

When they had that other goalie from Providence did Timmy get a break? I just think that it's what is working now so they're going to go with it.

Nope, the guy they called up (Philippe Sauve), despite having a last name that literally means "save", doesn't make a lot of them. At least not at the NHL level. From what I've seen, he's a "in case Timmy breaks his leg, we probably ought to have another goalie somewhere in the building" sort of back-up. In a very sparse 41 minutes of game time in the NHL this season, he has a 5.80 GAA and a .826 save %. His numbers in 8 games with the Coyotes last season were only marginally better. Guys like Sauve (a high second round pick by Colorado in '98, with 32 mediocre NHL games to show for it) are the reason why the mantle of "goalie hotbed" has passed from Quebec to Finland. There are still fine goalies coming out of Quebec (i.e. Marc Andre Fleury), but there was a time there when it seemed like any half-decent goalie in Quebec was an early round draft pick. Too many teams got burned on guys like Sauve, I think. GMs realized that there's more to being a good goalie than a French surname. Like a Finnish surname, for example. Okay, so GMs don't learn too quickly. For the next few years, every kid in Lapland with a set of pads will probably get drafted. I ought to change my last name to Dodgeinen or something.

Quote: Originally Posted by bethandlouis (original)

P.S. Louis says Hi, and wants to know why John's not coming to UVM hockey night.

Good question. Months ago he mumbled something about checking social calendars, then nothing. I think he just doesn't love us anymore.

Another fine mess by the Bs today. Wasted a fine effort by Timmy (including 21 saves on 22 shots in the second) by generating almost no offense after the first period. Got so caught up in line matching to keep Chara on Jagr that they didn't seem to get a game of their own going. They kept Jagr to one assist and a 0 on the +/-, but they didn't get the win. Which would have been nice.

-Ricardo

[bethandlouis]

So did you get to see any of the terrible Caps game?