Weekend Wrap Up OR What I missed because the power went out

There were a ton of good fights this weekend. Here they are in no particular order:



Owen Nolan - Love that he's still playing and fighting



Rick Rypien is fearless!



Not a great fight, but I love when the players take off their buckets



This counts a "loss" for Boogaard, right?


I'll briefly talk about the Ovechkin hit: You can't hit a guy in the numbers. If you see numbers it means that the player has beat you. Let it go. The only reason that the call (5 min and a game) is up for discussion is because the refs don't call it consistently enough. You want players to let up on those dangerous hits - then the refs need to make consistent calls. I don't know if Ovy should get suspended, but the right call on the ice was made. Shut up, Mike Milbury.

Heres a great pass from Ovy, from Friday versus the Lightning:



Pat Eaves has dangerous speed and Ryan Miller should really stop even thinking about using a poke check:



Formula for a great save = highway robbery + late in game x team has lead... as done by Halak



It was Ottawa's only goal, but boy was it pretty. Vintage Jason Spezza:



Steve Mason has a slow glove hand, apparently:





Heres a nice passing play from the Isles, to put away the Leafs last night:




What did I miss?

-Bress

Holiday Weekend Wrap Up OR Does anyone know where I can watch the daytime hockey games online?

First I'll review the last weekend of the NHL before the Olympic pause, and then I''ll talk Olympics.

I didn't anything of real interest happened Friday night, except for this sweet game-winner from Nicolas Bergfors:



And Dion falling back into his bad defensive habits:



Calgary HATED when he chased guys behind the net.

However, the Fridy Canadiens/Flyers match up did set up this:



I love a good opening face-off fight and Lapierre did some nice work. Jeff Carter was also happy


And then danny briere went at got a hat trick. I'm not sure he deserved a penalty shot for the 3rd, though.



Nice finish, nonetheless.


Heres some sweet backhand sauce, courtesy of Robbie Schremp:





As for the Olympics...

First of all, for all Team USA news go here: http://teamusanews.org



We'll be keeping that widget up for the remainder of the games.


Second - it sucks that the hockey won't be on the main NBC channel. I don't really care about exposure or audience size - I mostly just care about watching great hockey in HD. I don't know if CNBC or USA or MSNBC or HGTV have HD versions. If I'm the NHL, I'm pissed because of the numbers stuff. They shut down and then get put on channels that only do slightly better than Versus.

Speaking of Versus, if Comcast owns NBC now and has always owned Versus, why aren't games on Versus? Thats rhetorical - ad space is sold way in advance, yada yada, but shouldn't Versus at least do a nightly recap show of the hockey. Yea, that would be logical and helpful, so of course they won't.

Anyway, USA starts on their road to Gold (or bronze) with an afternoon game vs the Swiss. Where can I watch this online?

Thanks,

Bress

What you missed last night while you were finally finishing your crhistmas shopping

Since there are no games the rest of the week, today's recaps will be hockey haikus. Think of it as an early Christmas gift!

Penguins roll over the Senators, 8-2:
Lost in this blow out,
are Fleury's 45 saves.
And Alfie got hurt.

Blues beat the Flames in the shoot-out, 2-1:
On one play, Langkow
laid out Paul Kariya. The
Blues swept all the west.

Canadiens beat the Hurricanes, 5-1:
So, are all games that
the Canadiens play in
the southeast in French?

Islanders beat the Maple Leafs, 3-1:
Blake Comeau played great
He could be this teams, Selke
candidate. John scored!

Wild beat the Oilers, 3-1:
I think that Owen
Nolan should only be known
as Cowboy. He scored.

Flyers beat the Lightning, 5-2:
I hope the Flyers
improve after Christmas
for the Classic.

Blackhawks shut-out the Red Wings, 3-0:
They're not booing you
Hossa, they're say, "yoooooooou sucked
in the play-offs, jerk."

Coyotes shut-out the Ducks, 4-0:
If a team wins in
the desert and no one is
there, does it matter?

Stars beat the BJs, 3-1:
Fire Hitch? Trade who? What
are the Jackets going to
do to stop this slide?

Bruins beat the Thrashers. 6-4:
Boston looks like a
team hitting their groove. Kessel
who? exactly, right.

Rangers beat the Panthers, 4-1:
I was supposed to
go to this game, but glad I
did not. Gabby scored!

Capitals win over the Sabres, 5-2:
Ovechkin scored his
24th goal in his game
29. Dream's alive.

What you missed last night because some jackass in a Kocur jersey wouldn't shit down or shut up

Rangers beat the Islanders, 3-1: While I'm sure it wasn't the offensive explosion the Rangers were looking for, they did get the must needed win last night. Oh boy, was that game winning goal s-o-f-t. The Islanders first/only goal was off a very nice feed from Blake Comeau, somehow finding the passing lane from the corner to a streaking Mark Streit. This game wasn't much of exciting, but it was surprising to see Andy Hilbert go after whatever douche kneeed Sean Bergenheim - who then fought Petr Prucha.

Capitals beat the Canadiens in the shoot-out, 4-3: Nothing else matters from this game, except Alex Ovechkin's goal. Yes, the finish was superb, but I especially liked the way he got around the Montreal d-man: off the boards, reverse spin.GONE.

Red Wings win over the Predators, 6-2: This was an old fashioned beat down by the Wings. They were pretty much unstoppable on the power play and gave the Predators nothing.

Kings beat the Ducks, 4-3: Has there ever been a year with all 3 California teams making the playoffs? Midas?

BJs beat the Blues, 4-3: Yes, they certainly do.