New England Hockey Talk

[MGB Boy]

I feel like that woman at the end of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978 version) when she realizes that even Donald Sutherland has been converted to one of "them"....



-Ricardo

[snid]

Nascar oval track racing is dull. But this was a road race, with some of the best road racers around in it.

I don't watch the oval track stuff, but the race that was on today was really good. Except for JPM taking out his teammate by going for a more aggressive pass than he needed to.

It was a more entertaining race to watch than most F1 races, IMHO.

[MGB Boy]

How to spot Jason at MOT this summer:



-Ricardo

[MGB Boy]

Back on topic, it looks like it's Joey Night! Third game in four days, road game (away from the potential boo-birds in Beantown), fifteen straight starts for Timmy, so it's time for a break. Joey MacDonald gets his first Bruins start. Timmy probably won't know what to do with himself...

-Ricardo

[snid]

If you're going back on topic, don't you need to talk about people's fashion or "dreamy eyes"?

[MGB Boy]

No, Beth is in charge of the "Dreamy Eyes" department...

-Ricardo

[MGB Boy]

Joey!



Seriously, dude, do something about the pads. And the gloves. And the stick. And the mask. Regardless, he played well. The Boston gameplan tonight was to circle the wagons, block a lot of shots, limit NJ's chances, play a "complete team game". Translation: We don't have Timmy back there, and we don't know what this kid can do, so lets try extra hard to protect him. They executed that quite well, blocked 20 shots (Boston's blocked shot totals from the four preceding games: 7, 8, 6, 10), limited shots on goal to 27 (7 under their season average), and didn't do their normal third period collapse (only out-shot 10-7). Plus Joey played quite well, probably the best performance in net for the Bruins by a goalie not named Thomas since Toivonen stopped 36 of 38 in a loss to the Senators on January 20th. Believe it or not, of Boston's 32 wins, tonight was only the fourth by someone other than Timmy and only the second since October. Crazy. So hey, it's only one game but it looks like maybe we have a back-up now who can be played from time to time without automatically penciling in a "L"...

-Ricardo

[snid]

Ahhh good! Ricardo's back to playin Joan / Melissa Rivers and giving us the fashion report.

[bethandlouis]

Seems like it would be easy to get a white mask (a la Martin Biron) instead of wearing something that said Detroit Red Wings. I just assumed that they called him up from Providence until I saw the helmet then I heard them say they got him off of waivers from the Red Wings. I think he did pretty good considering. The Devils played they're normal boring neutral ice hockey but the Bruins did a good job of forechecking and pokechecking at the blue line that it didn't afford them bringing in the puck and they had to do dump ins.

Now I'm going to watch the Caps game we went to to hear the play by play. There were a lot of infractions that the islanders committed that weren't called. The one they called in the 1st period was obvious and happend right in front of the ref. It would have been mayhem if they didn't call it. The hold penalty that Jurchina took was a BS hold. He put his hand inbetween the arm and body of the Islander player (at least that's what I saw. The Islander player didn't go down and he retained possesion of the puck. There were at least 3 tripping penalties that weren't called. It was almost carte blanche for the Islanders to commit penalties. The Brash penalty was BS too. Brash is a tough guy we all know that and Witt is a tough guy we all know that. At a face off (after an offsides call). Witt and Brash lined up opposite each other. Witt cross checked Brash. Then the refs came over because Brash stood up to him. Then the face off happened and Brash shoved Witt. <whistle> penalty double minor roughing and unsportsmanlike. I think it would have only been a roughing if Brash hadn't been enforcing earlier in the night. They got a goal of that. And the Jurchina penalty. It seemed at the end of the night, the refs realised that they had called the game all wrong and started making up Islander infractions. No one knew why there was a delay of game, but hey well take a PP.
I wanted to ask because I watched The Rick very carefully because he's the great one, and he seems to play the puck really close to the trapezoid. Is there a line rule whereas if the puck is on the line it's o.k. or is it like football. the line is out and it is "in" the trapezoid. I was really shocked at how he dances around that line with the puck. There was one time I thought it was clearly in the trapezoid and he played it (of course there was no call).

I'm sorry I wasn't up on my anti-Islanders chants. It would have been nice to start that since a large contingent of "Islander Nation" was seated directly behind me.

[MGB Boy]

Today's trivia: When Jurcina was with Boston, his nickname was "Jerky". I can only hope the tradition continues in Washington. Aside from that, he struck me as a guy who showed flashes of potential between long periods of underachievement. He seemed utterly unwilling to play a physical game, he "played smaller" than he really was. That appears to have changed for the moment in DC, we'll see if it lasts. There's really no point in having a 6'4" 230lb defender if he plays like he's 5'10" 180lb, which Jurcina tended to do way too often in Boston.

Typically when a goalie is traded they'll go with a quick coat of white spraypaint while a new lid is getting painted. Either that or they just apply a layer of tape over the lid to cover the old paintjob, then stick on a couple of team logo stickers from the team giftshop, like these:







In Tellqvist's and Dunham's, you can actually see the old paintjob showing thru...

-Ricardo

[jcsinnh]

Quote: Originally Posted by snid (original)

Ahhh good! Ricardo's back to playin Joan / Melissa Rivers and giving us the fashion report.

Hey, get off this thread! This ain't no hatrick menage. Or menageree, either

[bethandlouis]

It looks really wierd.

Louis tells me that the Rangers beat the Islanders in a shoot out. The Rick faced an amazing number of shots before letting one get by him. He really is the best goalie ever created. I was going to get you a bobblehead of The Rick but I think that $20 is a little far for a joke. I do however need to get Annette's address so that I can send her her joke.

Watched 2 periods of the BC/UNH game (not sure if it was a rebrodcast or live). The eagles were winning when I stopped watching. So how are your Cats doing? Chuging right along, I hope.

[MGB Boy]

Hockey East quarterfinals start this Thursday. UVM will be at BU for a Thurs-Fri-Sat best of three series. The Friday night game is on NESN. We'll see how it goes, we took two out of three from BU during the regular season. And BC ended up winning that game, they swept UNH this weekend.

$20 is a bargain for a bobblehead of The Rick. That should be worth thousands.

The Rick had something like 55 saves. Would have won if he had 56. Slacker. He does like to play the puck right around the edges of the trapezoid. Not sure what the rule is for the puck crossing the line, it's not a goal unless the puck is all the way across the goal line, it's not offsides unless the puck is all the way across the blueline, so logic would say it's not "in the no-play zone" unless it's all the way across the line. Of course logic doesn't always win. But I do know that it's where the puck is that matters, not where the goalie is, so in that regard I seem to be ahead of about half the play-by-play guys in the league. Don't know how many times I've witnessed play-by-play guys getting all fired up because a goalie plays the puck while standing with a foot in the trapezoid. As long as the puck isn't in there, it doesn't matter where he stands, the location of the puck is the key. Just another item for the "why many NHL commentators annoy me" file.

-Ricardo

[bethandlouis]

There was one thing that happened in the Caps/Isles game that had the commentators pretty peeved. It was something that happened at the other end of the ice so I had no idea what had happened. There was a delayed penalty called on the Caps while they were in their defensive zone. A play was made toward the goal and Brent Johnson played the puck to behind the goal. So the commentators were really upset after the play had been whistled dead they looked at it on replay to see if he had control (because apparently for the goalie to get the whistle he has to play it with control) He calmy changed direction of the puck and played it to behind the cage. So the Islanders got a few precious 6 on 5 seconds that they shouldn't have had.

I did know that it matters where the puck is. I've seen goalies standing in the crease and playing the puck and then the commentators say it only matters where the puck is. But there are some goalies who play it obscenely close to the trapezoids. I've seen them push the puck with their paddle through the trapezoid. I think this should be "playing in the trapezoid" but it doesn't get called unless there is flagrant playing in the trapezoid i.e. the puck is sitting there and someone plays it.

There was a 3 foot tall bobblehead that I thought would make a great addition to your apartment of The Rick but $300 is definately too much for a joke. Maybe when McFarlane makes a The Rick action figure (I almost wrote doll) I'll get that for your hockey room.

[MGB Boy]

Is it just me, or is both your last post and this entire thread currently showing up twice?

-Ricardo