2011-2012 (from Wikipedia):

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2010-2011 (from Wikipedia):

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Well, one thing you’ll notice is that, yes there are more suspensions this year, but the vast majority of them came during the preseason. Right now, there’s only one suspension this regular season. Compare that to the four that were doled out in the same amount of time last year. Now, I know this isn’t a lot of time to really make a definitive answer (My Center Ice preview hasn’t even ended yet!), but it looks like Shanahan has tried to set a precedent early. I’ve heard the argument that this uptick can be attributed to rule changes, but when you look at what’s being considered a punishable offense this year, it doesn’t seem to differ too much from last. Shanahan doesn’t seem to be focusing on head hits. I was certainly sketpical during preseason, but it looks like the right precedent has been set and we should see less shenanigans in 2011-2012.

African Chicken ala Puppet

Courtesy of the WORST twitter based cooking show… #thepoormansfoodnetwork #PMFN

Ingredients for 2 to 4

• 1 can light coconut milk
• 2 chicken breasts. (butterflied)
• 2 bunches green onion
• 2 dozen cashews
• Clubhouse La Grille chicken spice (salt free)
• Salt/pepper
• Uncle Bens Bistro Express (Basmati)

Directions

Saute… Add chopped fine green onion to large pan (no heat yet) with can of coconut milk, cashew halves and a few pinches of salt and pepper – mix with microwaved rice. Turn heat to high and stir until milk is reduced and to desired thickness.

Chicken… After butterflying for thinner strips cover chicken in oil. Use fingers. Wash every time you touch the chicken. Sprinkle on chicken spice covering 75% of each chicken portion. Add small pinch of pepper to all. Heat on BBQ/high for 2/3 minutes each side. (depending on thickness of course) Remove and let chicken sit on large plate. Cut chicken into bite size pieces and spread evenly over the plate.   Then cover the entire chicken with your coconut rice saute straight from the still warm pan. Careful not to dry it out. We want it moist. This will also keep your chicken moist and warm.

Ready to serve.

Add corn as a nice side but not required.

Season for personal taste.

Origin

Years ago on Davie Street (Vancouver) there was an odd dive called DV8. On the menu was African Chicken. I have spent years trying to recapture this recipe at home and through plenty of trial and error this is as close as I have got.

Enjoy.

Thanks for the grub idea, my felt neighbor to the north! I’m going to make this at some point this season and provide a scathing/glowing review.

Milan Hejduk:

Jean-Sebastien Giguere:

TJ Galiardi:

Matt Duchene:

Even with the advent of HD cameras watching from multiple angles, that top-down view is still obstructed by the net. Talks of a piece of plexiglass on the top are overkill while an auxiliary yellow confirmation line is just laughable. Plexiglass will break and cause be exploited for weird bounces. That yellow line doesn’t address the problem already at hand. If we can’t see it cross one line, what’s one more obstructed line going to do?

The simplest solution is one I haven’t heard yet:  CHANGE THE NET. Right now, the nets are made of a white nylon which could easily be changed to a transparent color. I’m no fabric or thread expert, but would switching to a transparent net really change anything? Yes, it may not look as nice or as traditional as the white nets currently in use, but another yellow line or a piece of plexiglass are bigger hockey sins in my mind.

Am I missing something, or is the NHL missing one of the better ways to solve this problem?

Looks a bit like Val Kilmer, no?

The 22nd NHL Guardian released in anticipation of the 2011 All-Star Game is Colorado’s own Avalanche. He’s described as having a problem with authority and hating being told what to do. He also has a “deep-rooted gambler mentality” that is attributed to historic Denver being populated by miners and gamblers. The “giant piece of rocky frozen earth” can control ice and rock elements, meaning he can cause an actual avalanche (but only when conditions allow for it).

So, what we have here is a gamling-addled cousin of Mr. Freeze that’s a frozen rock. His powers can only work when he’s surrounded by ice and snow, which as many Denverites know, doesn’t happen very often. The Avalanche’s problem with authority is really the best part of the entire profile, though. Our savior the Rocky Mountains is at best a loose cannon and at worst a petulant child that doesn’t want to follow rules.

If the Avs fans are in trouble, they’d better hope their superhero is in a good mood and hasn’t been shaken down by his bookie. Oh, and it would also help if it wasn’t one of Denver’s 300+ days of sunshine they enjoy every year.

The offending organ

On January 22nd, Peter Forsberg will begin practicing with the Avalanche to test his NHL mettle for a possible return. Most are focusing on the Foppa, which leaves an interesting fact overlooked.

With the addition of Matt Hunwick to the team this season, the Avalanche added a second person to their roster without a spleen. Hunwick lost his in 2009 while with the Boston Bruins. Peter Forsberg lost his in 2001. Right now, the Avalanche probably have the least amount of spleens of any NHL team without Forsberg. However, with his addition to the practice squad, the team is one step closer to confidently proclaiming sole ownership of such an odd record.

At the very least, Hunwick and Forsberg can compare scars and stories about their organs rupturing.

It’s nice to know the NHL is taking this seriously. At least they spelled “technological” correctly.

While the Avalanche found their place almost instantly with a championship their first year in town and another one just 5 years later, the team has ridden that success into the ground. Lazy and sometimes just nonexistent marketing is just fine when you come into town as a winner, but some effort needs to be made when the on-ice product stops doing the talking.

As Kiszla points out in his column, the “All About the A” ad campaign is a headscratcher that has given way to plenty of jokes as to what that “A” actually stands for. That just isn’t going to cut it. Who is the face of the Avalanche? Only the die-hards just thought of a name while reading that last sentence and I’m sure there were many different answers. There’s the problem! Crosby is the face of the Penguins. Ovechkin is the face of the Capitals. The Avalanche need to unite their team under the name of a player, not an arbitrary letter. When the vast majority of your players are guys that are new in town it’s a pretty hard sell.

“Did Denver ever really love the NHL? Or did the bandwagon stop when Joe Sakic, Rob Blake, Patrick Roy and Peter Forsberg got off?”

This little statement has a lot wrong with it. Denver has always loved the NHL, but right now the Avs look more like the incredibly awful Rockies of old NHL infamy. With a shaky history to start with, it’s no wonder the Avalanche are starting to crumble under the weight of old expectations. Yes, the greats of the Cup years are almost all gone, but that doesn’t mean there’s a bandwagon. It just shows that the team needs to give the fans a poster child to rally behind once again.

Kiszla is singing that same old song of the terrible Avalanche marketing, but I’m going to finish it. The Avalanche have some work to do. Billboards with Duchene, Stastny, and Foote are a great idea. Let’s introduce Denver to more than just the “A”. Let’s make the in-arena experience less of a snore. I am consistently jealous of other fans around the league and the party that seems to go on in other buildings.

Ditch the Kiss Cam. Ditch the “All Hell Broke Loose” gimmick. Ditch every overplayed little applause trigger that hasn’t seemed to change since Pepsi Center opened.

Mark alludes to the Winnipeg Avalanche, but we all know the team isn’t leaving Denver. However, if the Avs don’t do something soon, they’ll soon see their stories under a much bigger lacrosse or soccer headline in the papers.

Good

The series are going long and Game 7s are great. They rally crowds, increase interest in teams not only locally, but on a national level, and they drive higher ratings. Also, recent games in the East have been particularly interesting in large part due to their storylines. The Penguins were titans in the sport thanks to the high skill level of Sidney Crosby and his supporting cast, and they fell to a Cinderella team in the Canadiens, who’s regular season record (39-33-10) revealed no indication of how successful they would actually be in the postseason. The same goes for the Flyers, who barely snuck into the postseason at the last possible minute and have made an impressive effort to push forward in the playoffs.

Bad

Are either of the teams that advanced skilled enough to play in the Stanley Cup Finals though? Arguably, upsetting higher seeds twice in a row is a testament to a team’s skill and ability to play under pressure. It’s hard to imagine either team in the East beating either of the teams left in the West. Although neither Western Conference team had an especially easy go in the first two rounds, their solid regular seasons point to a more consistent game than their Eastern Conference counterparts.

Ugly

The Philadelphia Flyers play an ugly game of hockey. I think we all laughed off this kind of embellishment from Daniel Carcillo, a player who had a whopping 207 penalty minutes in the regular season. He’s racked up 26 minutes in the postseason already, spending almost 40% more time in the box than any other single player still in the race for the Cup. It’s now a staggering reality that the Flyers may be the team the Eastern Conference sends to the Finals.

When it comes down to it, any team that can power through three rounds of intense competition deserves a shot at the Cup. Whether either team left in the East can go the extra mile to take home the trophy won’t be determined until early June, but hopefully it will be a good, clean, passionate series to get us there.