The NHL playoffs start on Wednesday…FINALLY. Rinktology.org has made is easy to create a bracket and make selections. The bracket is pretty simple, but works great. They will have way to share it, no way create groups though. Anyway, Here are my picks for the 2009 NHL Eastern Conference Playoffs.

1st Round

Boston vs Montreal: I see this one going 5 games. In past years Montreal has been a tough match-up for Boston. My youth was spent watching the Bruins lose to the Habs in the playoffs over and over. This year will be different. Boston is just too solid this year.

New Jersey vs Carolina: Devils in 7. The Hurricanes are hot, but I see the Devils finding a way to win this series. Brodeur has the ability to win a series on his own and the Hurricanes D can be weak in their own zone. The Devils won the most recent match-up on 2 fluke goals and a huge mental lapse.

Pittsburgh vs Philadelphia: Another 7 game series. This one has the potential to be a brutal series. Philly is a strong physical team and will be all over Crosby and Malkin. The Penguins will need Guerin and Gill to step up and send a message early. If Sykora can remember how to find the net, this one could end early.

Washington vs New York Rangers: The caps sweep this one. Avery will try to get under Ovechkin’s skin, but he’ll just end up in the box.

2nd Round

Boston vs Pittsburgh: This one will be a battle of goalies. Both teams have players that can score and pretty decent defensive corps. Thomas will outplay Fleury in the end and the Bruins will move on.

Washington vs New Jersey: The Caps will take this one in 5. Ovechkin will go off in this series and notch 9 goals. I’m calling my shot.

Conference Finals

Boston vs Washington: Boston goes 7 games again, but will come out ontop. Theodore’s luck will run out and the Bruins will move into the Finals. Chara shuts down Ovechkin in this round.

I’ll be back tomorrow with my Western Conference predictions (I’m sure YOU can’t wait).

PS. I do know I picked all the higher seeds to win each round. Just the way it worked out.

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The NHL trade deadline has passed and below is a list of all the deals that were completed.

* The Columbus Blue Jackets acquire Antoine Vermette from the Ottawa Senators for Pascal Leclaire and a 2009 2nd round draft pick.
* The Calgary Flames acquire Jordan Leopold from the Colorado Avalanche for Lawrence Nycholat, Ryan Wilson, and a 2nd round draft pick.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins acquire Andy Wozniewski from the St. Louis Blues for Danny Richmond.
* The Buffalo Sabres acquire Mikael Tellqvist from the Phoenix Coyotes for a 4th round draft pick.
* The Anaheim Ducks acquire Petteri Nokelainen from the Boston Bruins for Steve Montador.
* The Calgary Flames acquire Olli Jokinen and a 3rd round draft pick from the Phoenix Coyotes for Matthew Lombardi, Brandon Prust, and a 1st round draft pick.
* The Boston Bruins acquire Mark Recchi and a 2010 2nd round draft pick from the Tampa Bay Lightning for Matt Lashoff and Martins Karsums.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins acquire Bill Guerin from the New York Islanders for a conditional draft pick.
* The Philadelphia Flyers acquire Daniel Carcillo from the Phoenix Coyotes for Scottie Upshall and a 2nd round draft pick.
* The New York Rangers acquire Nik Antropov from the Toronto Maple Leafs for a 2nd round draft pick and a conditional draft pick.
* The New York Rangers acquire Derek Morris from the Phoenix Coyotes for Dmitri Kalinin, Nigel Dawes, and Petr Prucha.
* The Buffalo Sabres acquire Dominic Moore from the Toronto Maple Leafs for a 2nd round draft pick.
* The Anaheim Ducks acquire Erik Christensen from the Atlanta Thrashers for Eric O’Dell.
* The Tampa Bay Lightning acquire Noah Welch and a 3rd round draft pick from the Florida Panthers for Steve Eminger.
* The Columbus Blue Jackets acquire Kevin Lalande from the Calgary Flames for a 4th round draft pick.
* The Philadelphia Flyers acquire Kyle McLaren from the San Jose Sharks for a 6th round draft pick.
* The Chicago Blackhawks acquire Samuel Pahlsson from the Anaheim Ducks for James Wisniewski.
* The San Jose Sharks acquire Travis Moen and Kent Huskins from the Anaheim Ducks for Nick Bonino, Timo Pielmeier, and a conditional draft pick.
* The Carolina Hurricanes acquire Patrick O’Sullivan and a second round draft pick from the Los Angeles Kings for Justin Williams.
* The Edmonton Oilers acquire Patrick O’Sullivan and a 2nd round draft pick from the Carolina Hurricanes for Erik Cole.
* The Edmonton Oilers acquire Ales Kotalik from the Buffalo Sabres for a 2nd round draft pick.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs acquire Olaf Kolzig, Jamie Heward, and Andy Rogers from the Tampa Bay Lightning for Richard Petiot.

The deal that seems to have had the biggest impact is the Pens/Islanders deal. Billy Guerin has been a huge pick-up for the Penguins so far. He and Chris Kunitz have been just the wingers Sidnet Crosby has needed to get the pens back into the hunt for the Stanley Cup. The Flames getting Jokinen has also given the team a scorer to complement Iginla.

The Hurricanes re-acquiring Erik Cole has revitalized a team that was way out of the playoffs and headed toward another year of spending the post-season at home. They have been on a tear since the deadline and seem to be built to go deep.

The playoffs will be interesting this season. Will the Pens go 4 and out? Will the Capitals regret not picking up a goalie at the deadline?

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The 2009 NHL trade deadline is coming up pretty quick. TSN probably has the best trade page set up so far. ESPN does not even have a transaction link on the NHL page. TSN has a list of the deals done so far right HERE.

There are a number of players who could go at the deadline. Lots of sportswriters and bloggers LOVE to just make up rumors and quote “sources close to the team” that never come true. I freaking called Hossa to the Penguins last season. I sat next to Josh, a huge Pens fan, during the deadline last season and I said to him, “Pens are gonna get Hossa” and it happened. True story.

The talk is about Jay Bouwmeester heading to possibly Boston. I think we could see a few big names go on the 2009 NHL Trade Deadline of March 4. The Penguins could possibly ship Ryan Whitney, Max Talbot and a 3rd round pick to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Martin St. Louis. See, I just made up a trade rumor. It is THAT easy. The key is to keep the rumors somewhat believable.

Let’s try another. Keith Tkachuk to the Bruins for a 1st rounder in 2011 and Manny Fernandez. How about Bill Guerin and Mike Comrie to the Bruins for Manny Fernandez, Petteri Nokelainen and Byron Bitz. It could happen.

I like the NHL trade deadline day. It is even more enjoyable when the team I like actually makes some good deals. It really sucks when the team is obviously dumping salary and is gonna write off the season.

I’ll be listing the deals as they go down on March 4th, and who knows, some of the rumors I started might actually come true.

Visit our NHL DEADLINE TRADE PAGE for daily updates.

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The Shootout 2009 NHL All-Star Skills Competition featured Ovechkin putting on a show. He teamed up with his Russian friend and NHL enemy, Evegini Malkin to treat the Montreal crowd to a bit of showmanship and, to be honest, not much else. None of the moves actually worked out, but adding a hat, a flag and some Paris Hilton glasses, gave him the win.

The skills competition was a fun event to watch, even without some awesome moves. I’d rather see less of this non-sense and maybe add a few more relay events.

And why did the NHL use a Junior B goalie and not Brett Leonhardt who suited-up as a back-up back in December?

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The 2009 NHL All-Star Game Rosters have been announced. There are some snubs and some surprises.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Forwards

x-Patrick Kane, Chicago; x-Jonathan Toews, Chicago; s-Ryan Getzlaf, Anaheim; Jarome Iginla, Calgary; Milan Hejduk, Colorado; Rick Nash, Columbus; Mike Modano, Dallas; Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit; Dustin Brown, Los Angeles; Shane Doan, Phoenix; Keith Tkachuk, St. Louis; Joe Thornton, San Jose.

Defensemen

x-Brian Campbell, Chicago; x-Scott Niedermayer, Anaheim; Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit; Sheldon Souray, Edmonton; Shea Weber, Nashville; Dan Boyle, San Jose.

Goalies

x-Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Anaheim; Niklas Backstrom, Minnesota; Roberto Luongo, Vancouver.

Eastern Conference

Forwards

x-Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh; x-Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh; x-Alexei Kovalev, Montreal; Ilya Kovalchuk, Atlanta; Marc Savard, Boston; Thomas Vanek, Buffalo; Eric Staal, Carolina; Zach Parise, New Jersey; Dany Heatley, Ottawa; Jeff Carter, Philadelphia; Vincent Lecavalier, Tampa Bay; Alex Ovechkin, Washington.

Defensemen

x-Andrei Markov, Montreal; x-Mike Komisarek, Montreal; Zdeno Chara, Boston; Jay Bouwmeester, Florida; Mark Streit, N.Y. Islanders; Tomas Kaberle, Toronto.

Goalies

x-Carey Price, Montreal; Tim Thomas, Boston; Henrik Lundqvist, N. Y. Rangers.

x=voted by the fans as a starter.

The roster is FULL of Canadians as their fans stuffed the online NHL ALL STAR game ballots. No matter who is playing, I’ll be tuning in for the skills competition on Saturday and the game on Sunday.

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Matt Procter was kind enough to share his footage of the 2009 Winter Classic.

It was good to see Dave Kepple, the former Bishop McCourt High School superstar, come out of retirement and take a few laps around the rink.

Matt’s services are available for Bat Mitzahs, birthday parties and adult themed gatherings.

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The goalie for the Charlestown Chiefs, Denis Lemieux, had some of the best lines from SlapShot. While he was a minor character he is one of the most memorable. Here is a compilation of the best Denis Lemieux SlapShot quotes.

Lily Braden: You’re bullshit, you’re really bullshit.
Ned Braden: You’re drunk.
Reggie Dunlop: You’re right, he’s bullshit.
Lily Braden: Yeah? Well, he and I are the only decent items in this town
[Leaves]
Reggie Dunlop: That’s great. Why should she care what anyone thinks about her? Shes just scrappin’ Hey, how does Braden treat her? Is he nice to her?
Denis Lemieux: Oh yeah, he love her. He tell me ‘I love her.’
Reggie Dunlop: Well, maybe Braden’s a faggot, you ever think of that?
Denis Lemieux: No way, he got a big cock, like horse.

Jim Carr: Hi, Jim Carr again. Denis, I know that some in our audience don’t know the finer points of hockey. Could you tell them, for example, what is icing?
Denis Lemieux: Well, um, icing happen when the puck come down, bang you know, before the other guys you know. Nobody there, you know. My arm go comes up then the game stop then start up.
Jim Carr: I see. What is high-sticking?
Denis Lemieux: High-sticking happen when the guy take the stick, you know, and he go like that
[high-sticks Jim Carr]
Denis Lemieux: you know. You don’t do that.
Jim Carr: You don’t do that?
Denis Lemieux: Oh no, never, never.
Jim Carr: Why not?
Denis Lemieux: Against the rules. You know, you’re stupid when you do that. Just some English pig with no brains, you know.
Jim Carr: Uh, what is slashing?
Denis Lemieux: Slashing is um, like that
[demonstrates on Jim Carr]
Denis Lemieux: you know.
Jim Carr: Mm-hmm. And there’s a penalty for that?
Denis Lemieux: Yeah and for the trip also, you know like that
[demonstrates]
Denis Lemieux: . And for hook like this
[demonstrates]
Denis Lemieux: . And for spear, you know, like that.
[demonstrates]
Denis Lemieux: You do that, you go to the box, you know. Two minutes, by yourself, you know and you feel shame, you know. And then you get free.

Denis Lemieux: I’m tired of it! Puke! Blah! All the time, puke!
Reggie Dunlop: You’re a goalie, you’re supposed to be like that.

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The NHL announced some changes to the SuperSkills competition today. The events are being tweaked and one is even being decided via a text message vote.

The full rundown of the changes can be found on the NHL.com SuperSkills page.

The fastest skater competition remains unchanged and is still one of my favorite events to watch. The the horribly titledScotiabank NHL Fan Fav Breakaway Challenge is the next event and I’ll let the NHL explain exactly what it is:

With full access to the entire offensive zone, each shooter gets one minute to complete as many attempts as possible at a routine that ends with a shot on goal. Once all six skaters have performed, fans will vote by mobile text message to determine the winner.

The Young Stars game follows that event and features 3 on 3 hockey. The game pits sophomores against rookies with no rules or whistles. The accuracy competition is up next and then is followed by the breakaway relay.

Aside from the NHL version of the slam dunk contest, I’m excited. The skills competition has always been a better draw for me than the actual game.

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The NHL put on an amazing show yesterday. The 3rd Winter Classic (if you count the 2003 game between Montreal and Edmonton) was played in Chicago at a transformed Wrigley field. The Detroit Red Wings faced off against the Chicago Blackhawks in a game that featured 10 goals and some really wide-open hockey. I was really impressed by the entire event.

The rink looked awesome and the faux ivy along the outfield fence added a pretty cool touch. The game in Chicago was different from the ones in years past as it was held at a football venue prior to being held at a location set-up for baseball. The classic uniforms looked great. I personally liked the BlackHawks uniforms much better and I hope that they keep wearing them on occasion.

Check out the introduction:

The game drew over 40,000 people and early indications show that the TV ratings are actually pretty decent. The players even were in awe of the event.

“I kind of had my mouth open in the beginning,” said Detroit’s Jiri Hudler, who had two goals in the second period to tie the game. “We were all looking at each other during the anthem — ‘Wow, this is awesome.’ “

The hit on Cleary was awesome. He was sent head first over the boards into the BlackHawks bench.

A few random thoughts about the Winter Classic 2009:

- There were some great passing plays that lead to goals.
- That rendition of Take Me Out to the Ballgame was painful.
- It was funny to see some players wearing eyeblack to combat the sun.
- The Reebok commercial featuring Sidney Crosby was awesome. It seems so long ago that he actually skated with Lemieux.

What are your thoughts on the Winter Classic? Is it something you would like to see each year? Where should the next game be held?

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There are tons of excellent hockey websites that feature all kinds of excellent content on a daily basis. Here is a rundown of some of my favorites.

NHL.com: I always hated the official NHL site. It was poorly organized and that made trying to fine the good content that was there very difficult. The site finally underwent a redesign and is now one of the best sports sites on the web. I do wish that the live gamecenter broadcasts were free or available cheaper ($21/month or $125/season).

EmptyNetters: This site is part of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and primarily focuses on the Penguins, but does offer a pretty decent daily collection of links and stories for both conferences. Seth Rorabaugh does a great job at finding the best jersey fouls at the Igloo, and having lived in Johnstown, PA for a few years and gone to a number of Pens games, I can tell you that they are plentiful.

PuckDaddy: Don’t let the lame name fool you. This Yahoo! Site run by Greg Wyshynski is one of the best hockey blogs. The site is updated constantly throughout the day and features a collection of videos, links and more.

MotherPucker: Another great hockey blog. Good posts and great insight.

The Hockey News: I just can’t get into the site. I love the magazine, but for some reason I hate visiting THN on the web.

Alltop: Alltop is an awesome site run by Guy Kawasaki. The hockey section is a “virtual newsstand” that features updates posts from tons of hockey blogs.

What are some of your favorites?

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One of the best features of the latest batch of sports games from Electronic Arts is the ability to upload gameplay videos to EASportsWorld.com. This awesome feature allows users to easily share their gameplay highlights with their friends and others not only on that website, but their own as well.

Here are two clips of me running my college teammate during a game between my Bruins and his Penguins. (Both hits are totally legal.)

A great feature. It will be interesting to see how much more online integration is added for the next wave of EA Sports games.

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The NHL season is just over the quarter point and there has been quite a bit that has been notable.

–Sean Avery told the press that guys love his “sloppy seconds” and was then suspended for 6 games. His future with the Stars, and possibly the NHL, is in doubt. Sure it was a pretty dumb thing to say, but the players say far worse on the ice. There have been players who have been suspended for making racial comments far fewer games. The worst part of this was that the “mainstream” press picked it up and the NHL came out looking like a clown league yet again.

–Rod “not Rob” Brind’amour is a minus 21 for the season. He is DEAD last in the NHL. No other player is above a minus 17. Even with his horrible play, he is still logging over 20 minutes a game (3rd on the team). I don’t buy the excuse of just having knee surgery. If he had any issues, he’d be logging far less ice time. I think he needs to be dealt, but it would have to be to a team that had a player with a comparable salary to dump. He could be a good deadline deal pick-up for a team if he can turn it around.

–Crosby and Malkin. These guys are #1 and #2 in the NHL in points. There was a ton of talk about how the pens would have trouble signing them both and surrounding them with a decent team, but it looks like the 3rd and 4th lines of decent AHL call-ups is working well enough for them.

–Don Cherry called Malkin a “selfish” player. Don, I know those hot pink ties blind you sometimes, but if you took a look at the NHL assist leaders, you’d see that he has 36 assists and the next player not named Crosby only has 24.

–The Tampa Bay Lightning continue to fall apart. The team let a key player leave for Europe, fired Barry Melrose, sent Chris Gratton down to the AHL, had a game that ended up being a 60 minute promo for SAW IV and continue to lose. The owners and Melrose continue to trade jabs in the media as to who is to blame.

–The NHL failed to take a look at any of the NHL All Star issues I brought up. They passed of the voting issues as a testament of “passion of the fans” in Montreal.

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Football is becoming a sport where a defensive player can get away with a cheap shot and worry very little about any repercussions. Wes Welker took a cheap shot from Ryan Clark of the Steelers and Welker’s teammates could do nothing because they were afraid of long-term suspensions from the league. This allows defensive players to take cheap shots at the offense at will and not have to worry about anything but a small fine (if that). In the NHL, a hit like this would have lead to the perpetrator getting destroyed after the play and him thinking twice before doing it again.

Let’s take a look at the Wes Welker hit.

The ball was nowhere near him when he got hit, the hit was high and the hit was late. The play was over and Clark still continued to go after Welker.

Now, lets look at a comparable NHL hit from this season.

Doug Weight hits Brandon Sutter (a borderline legal hit…gotta keep your head up, kid) high. Now in the NFL clip, the players mill about and Clark seems to know he took a cheap shot at Welker and revels in it, but he knows none of the Patriots won’t, or can’t, do anything about. In the NHL clip, Weight heads over near his bench for safety while the other players on the ice know that it is about to get rough. The Hurricane players go after the Islanders.

I’m not saying brawls need to occur with every hit in either league, but when the players are allowed some leeway, hits the one in the NFL will occur less. The NHL might get a ton of press from the fights, but there are less hits like this in the NHL than in the NFL due to players knowing that if they take a cheap shot like this, there will be repercussions.

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I voted for my choices for the NHL All-Star game tonight (C’mon Timmy Thomas). After I voted, I was able to take a look at the leaders. I was pretty shocked to see that the top leaders for the Eastern Conference were all Canadians. They were not just ahead by a few votes, but by thousands!

Take a look at the forward leaders:

The 3 Canadians listed have almost 3 times as many votes as Semin (how the hell is he beating Ovechkin?).

Let’s look at the defenseman voting:

Over 100,000 more votes than the next defenseman! Something seems fishy here…

Now for the goalies:

Another vote where the Canadian has over 100,000 more votes than the next player.

I know that the game is being held in Montreal, and that it is the 100th anniversary of the team, but come on. Are all votes for Canadians being counted twice? I do know that I can keep voting and voting and voting if I want. A fan can vote “NHL fans will be able to vote as often as they like” according to the NHL rules. The balloting seemed as shady as a backstreet poker game.

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Here is a great compilation of fights from a game between the Sens and the Flyers in 2004. The game ended up with 419 PMs. At one point it looks like there are 6 guys left on the Flyers bench!

Some funny things from this fight:

-Mark Recchi throws down, and actually does a decent job.
-Patrick Lalime is in net for the Sens.
-The linsemen jump into fights WAY too early. If they let a few of these go a bit longer they might have been able to stem the tide since players would have known that the linsemen were not going to jump in and save them.

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There were quite a few things going on in the NHL and around the world this week. Some of the best heckling ever, Sarah Palin dropped another puck, the Lightning finally won and promoted the movie SAW IX and a bunch of more.

-Sarah Palin, the VP candidate on the Republican ticket, continued her quest to become the first female NHL referee if she and McCain lose the election. She dropped the puck at a game in Philly a few weeks ago and again in St. Louis. While the Palin curse left the Flyers winless to start the season, it took out Blues goalie Manny Legace. Legace tripped over the carpet and hurt his hip flexor.

-The owners of the Tampa Bay Lightning have interests in a Canadian Resort and Hollywood movies. The move SAW IV is being heavily promoted during Lightning games. Both goalies, Kolzig and Smith, are wearing masks with images from the movie saw painted on them. Back in the mid-80s, Grant Fuhr wanted to paint his pads to look like Pepsi cans, but was denied by the NHL. I’m not sure how this differs.

-During college, our friend Matt would sit behind our bench with a broken hockey stick and heckle the other team during games. Matt, while very creative, has nothing on the people of Sweden.

Check the story out HERE

This has to be the best example of heckling ever. There are some sites that have links to the “video” that inspired the heckling…(Deadspin). Poor Jan Huokko, he just wanted to enjoy himself…and share it with everyone he knows.

-Milan Lucic sent Mikey Van Ryn through the glass in Boston. Great hit, but the Bruins lost.

-The Carolina Hurricanes continue to struggle. Luckily they play in the “weak” Southeast division and might be able to sneak into the playoffs with a sub-par season. Will changes happen? They have struggled since they won the Cup and Peter Laviolette has been rumored to be on thin ice. Sergei Samsonov who played great at the end of last season is struggling and the goaltending has been spotty.

-Cam Neely Destroys Lindy Ruff

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The NHL might have dropped the puck on the new season over in Europe, but the season is now in full swing for all the teams. Here are some news, notes and my observations for the 2008-2009 season so far.

- Toronto spent $3.5 million to bring in Jeff Finger for 4 seasons and he has yet to play a game. A “bruised foot” has kept him out of the line-up since Oct. 5th.

- Sidney Crosby and Evegeni Malkin have started off pretty slow this season, at least until they were put on the same line against the Maple Leafs. Crosby netted his 1st goal of the season along with 3 assists and Malkin had 4 assists of his own. I think their trip to Europe to start the season is going to come into play as the season goes on. The NHL is a pretty travel-heavy league already and that 2 week long trip is going to cause some fatigue as the season goes on.

- Former New York Ranger prospect Cherepanov dies during KHL game. The footage of this made it to YouTube in about 18 seconds. The video shows just how the KHL compares to the NHL. The KHL has more similarities to my college games than it does to the NHL; bad between play music, no medical care and a crappy rink.

- The Tampa Bay Lightning and Barry Melrose are 0-5 to start the season. The former penguins they brought in (Recchi, Hall, Roberts and Malone) have a total of 4 points combined and #1 pick Steve Stamkos has no points in limited ice-time.

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While was researching my post on the Greatest Hockey Commercials of all-time I stumbled across a number that didn’t make the initial cut. So, here is PART 2….

While this isn’t all hockey, Gretzky’s excellent delivery of his line makes the entire commercial.

Here is a great one featuring Marty Turco.

Looks like the Kings “brought their toys with them.”

My friends and I actually played pool using line changes, penalties and the occasional fight. (I think the other bowler should have been called for charging)

Ovechkin shows off his perma-stubble and lack of teeth.

Shania Twain like hockey.

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