Hockey Talk

New Jersey on an Incredible Run

2011-03-05T09:06:00.000-08:00

If one were to look at the New Jersey Devils this year it would be a tale of two seasons, the pathetic one before Jacques Lemaire took over as coach, and the current one that has been the hottest team since then. To think that the Devils would have been in contention for a playoff spot back on January 15 when they were like 13-30 truly boggles the mind as they have loss just three times since

6 hours until the deadline

2011-02-28T06:08:00.001-08:00

Here we are six hours until the deadline, and things should really start heating up now. The thing that makes this year interesting is that there are so many teams on the bubble, that it's hard to say who is going to be sellers and who buyers. In the Western Conference, there's only six points separating the 5th place team from the 12th. As we saw last year with Montreal and later Philadelphia,

Ongoing issue with concussions

2011-02-27T13:06:00.000-08:00

With the problem of concussions becoming more in the spotlight with each injury, one wonders how far the NHL league office will go in trying to curtail the kind of injuries that are putting players out for extended periods and in some cases ending careers prematurely. With the NHL poster child, Sidney Crosby having been out for a couple of months, this could be the impetus for the NHL to take a

Beauty and the Beast Series Begins Today

2009-05-02T08:53:00.000-07:00

Hockey TalkThis is the type of series that the NHL and hockey media love. On one hand, you have Sidney Crosby, the media's darling going up against the beast, Alexander Ovechkin. It also happens to feature some other pretty good players such as the league's potential Hart trophy winner, Pittsburg's Evengi Malkin and Washington's other great Alex... Alexander Semin who just happened to make some

Teams that Can't Get Over the Hump

2009-04-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

Hockey TalkWatching San Jose making another early playoff exit can't help but make one empathize with the futility of the fans that support and follow the Sharks. While San Jose had a great regular season winning the President's trophy in the process, this team couldn't even get past the first round losing to its arch rival Anaheim in six games. I knew when the seedings came out that San Jose had

Home Ice Advantage?

2009-04-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

Hockey TalkI used to believe that home ice was more of an advantage in hockey than other sports but watching this years playoffs makes me wonder if that is really the case. The latest statistic that I saw showed that home teams had won just over 50% of the games so far making home ice a virtual non factor in most of the playoff series. For instance, the San Jose Sharks and Washington Capitals

Do Seedings Really Matter?

2009-04-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

Hockey TalkThe structure of the NHL playoffs seem to be about as fair as you can make it, with the 1st seed playing the 8th seed, the 2nd playing the 7th, etc. The idea is that teams with the better records throughout the regular season play the playoff eligible teams with the worst record, providing incentive for the teams to get the higher seed. The higher seeds also get home ice advantage in

Hockey's 2nd Season Begins

2009-04-12T18:10:00.000-07:00

Hockey TalkSeveral of my friends believe that the NCAA 'March Madness' Tournament is the most exciting sports event occurring at this time of the year, but I'm here to cast my vote for the NHL playoffs. The marathon battles that lead to the Stanley Cup finals are unequaled anywhere in professional sports as the two survivors that get to compete for the ultimate hockey prize known as Lord

Staged Fighting

2009-04-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

Hockey Talk It looks like the NHL might crack down on "staged fighting" next year by increasing the penalty to 10 minutes or some other heavier action. When they say "staged fights" they're talking about the ones that happen right after the drop of the puck. I have no problem with this because my attitude towards fighting is if your pissed off enough to want to drop the gloves and go at it,

Do The Referee's Play Favorites?

2009-03-30T22:52:00.000-07:00

Hockey TalkI see a lot of discussion about how the referee's seem to favor certain players when it comes to calling penalties; especially when the game is on the line. While it doesn't hurt to have a kid named Sidney on your team, I don't think that there is any kind of conspiracy by the referee's or pressure by the NHL office to see to it that some teams make it into the playoffs, but at the

Hockey....Then and Now

2009-03-28T23:14:00.000-07:00

As a child growing up in Baltimore, one of my passions was going to Baltimore Clippers hockey games in the Winter. While it wasn't the NHL, it didn't matter because it was still hockey, and besides it was all we had. While the game is basically the same as it was back then, there have been many changes since that time, and most are for the better. For instance, I remember a time when the teams

NHL Needs to Ditch the Dive Penalty

2009-03-22T07:50:00.001-07:00

I watched a game last night where a player was obviously tripped and a penalty was called on the player, but a penalty was also called on the player tripped for "diving". This penalty is one that I think that the NHL should consider getting rid of because it's too subjective of a call for the referee to make. To start off with, the majority of the time the call is against a player who trips

NHL Playoff Structure

2009-03-21T07:34:00.000-07:00

I've heard several people comment that everybody in the NHL makes the playoffs. Well, the truth is only about half the teams do actually make the playoffs. While that may seem like a lot compared to other sports, I think that it actually makes the game more exciting in that just about every game during the last month of the season has some kind of playoff implications. For instance, if you look

Brodeur Breaks Record

2009-03-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

Congratulations are in order for Martin Brodeur who recently broke Patrick Roy's record of 552 wins. While people are quick to say that Brodeur now ranks as the greatest NHL goaltender, I would just say that he is indeed one of the best. Winning as many games as Brodeur has requires many things including good health, playing for a good team, lots of skill, and a bit of luck. For there have been

How Important is the Plus/Minus Rating?

2009-03-19T07:50:00.000-07:00

While watching a game, one of the statistics that they like to profile is the plus/minus rating of the players. The way that it works is that a player gets a plus if a goal is scored while they are on the ice, and conversely they receive a minus if a goal is scored against them while they are out there. While every player would want to have a great plus minus rating, there's several factors that

Coaching Turnover

2009-03-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

I was surprised to find that the Washington Capitals coach, Bruce Boudreau is the 5th longest tenured coach in the NHL, and he's only in his first full season. It seems like G.M.'s have a much shorter leash these days when it comes to coaches, and the old line, "what have you done for me lately" is the motto in the NHL these days. For instance, both Guy Carboneau and Michel Therrien led their