Weekend Wrap Up or I would rather have one game every day than 2 games on one day

The weekend started with the epic failure of the Bruins and ended with the epic onslaught of the Flyers.

In between Big Buff got the game winner for the Hawks:



Looks to me like Nabakov was a little slow getting over and reading the one-timer



I wonder if Peter Lavoilette is the best time-out caller in the league?

A tale of 2 foreign (as in non-NA) goalies

Evgeni Nabakov sucked or Franzen just muled it up. I don't think this is a turning point in the series yet. If the Wings win tomorrow, thats the turning point - on the road, still about to be eliminated. Then just 1 game away from forcing a 7th.

The Canadiens are resilient and probably just a lot smarter than everyone assumes. In 2 rounds they have bottled up the best scorer in the league and the best player. Don't know how. Hal Gill must have kept a notebook when he was with the Pens. Also, that crowd in Montreal is just awesome.

Heres the goal of the night. I love wrap arounds:

What you missed last night while you were actually doing editting work on a possible new video

Sharks beat the Leafs, 3-2: Giguere had 2 shut-outs in a row. Impressive, but not epic. However, everyone shit themselves when he gave up the first goal last night to Boyle. No big tragedy. Had he been able to keep out one of the other two or had Nabakov not been OUTSTANDING, then the Leafs might have won.

Coyotes beat the Oilers, 6-1: The play that is the epitome of this game was the Radim Vrbata short-handed goal. I don't know what Oilers D-man he outraced, but it was embarrassing. Then a simple but effective move led to the goal. Oiler deflated, Coyotes elated.

Ducks beat the Kings, 4-2: Jonny Quick made spectacular saves last night, but it seemed that rebounds of those aforementioned saves eventually made it to Ducks' sticks and turned into goals.

Flyers beat the Devils, 3-2: Lets make sure everyone understand this right now: Just because a player gets injured as a result of a hit, does not make said hit dirty. Last night, right as Anssi Salmela scored Jeff Carter finished his hit. Like he supposed to do. Unfortunately Salmela took it poorly, landing on his face. Everyone calm down. This sometimes happens, but Carters hit was good hockey. Also, this doesn't mean that because a player does NOT get injured that a dirty hit didn't occur.

Avalanche beat the Blues, 5-2: Chris Mason was so freaking terrible in this game

What you missed last night while you were changing too slow

Devils shut-out the Hurricanes, 1-o (NJD lead series 3-2): Brodeur was one better than Cam Ward and thats all it came down to. A tip from David Clarkson - shot actually broke his stick - was all the Devils needed. I like how Brodeur, in the game after his meltdown, pitched a shut-out. Thats leadership and a veteran calm. Not much more to say about this game, except that between this and the Caps/Rangers series, its showing that 1-0 games can be exciting.

Ducks shut-out the Sharks, 4-0 (ANH leads series 3-1): The Ducks have one line. Really. Teemu Selanne is playing with Andrew Ebbits. Rob Neidermayer is a great grind guy. The Ducks only have one scoring line and Sharks can't keep up. Bobby Ryan (rookie stud), Corey Perry (freak stud), and Ryan Getzlaf (stud stud) roll through San Jose like they roll through SoCal. Is this really how its going to end for the Sharks? Also, Nabakov sneaky sucks this series.

Flyers shut-out the Penguins, 3-0 (PIT leads series 3-2): Holy crap, there were a lot of shut-outs last night. Not much to say about this game. Flyers did what they need to do. Penguins seemed slow. Back to Philly.

Red Wings win over the BJs, 6-5 (DET wins series 4-0): Heartbreaker for the BJs. Not that they would have won the series or even the game if it went to OT, but to comeback (twice!) and lose it shorthanded because of too many men on the ice call. That hurts. Also, imagine if Steve Mason actually played like he did in the regular season. This could have been a series or at least one more game. For everyone else in the West, if you can shut-down that offense, Osgood didn't look too sharp last night.

What you missed last night while you were miss-playing a line drive to left field

Canucks beat the Blues in OT, 3-2 (VAN win series 4-0): I finally got an OT call right. Anyway, the OT was probably the best (almost) period that the Blues played all series. If not for repeatedly shooting at Roberto Luongo's chest, they might have won that game. Chris Mason actually made the better of the saves, but was once again supsetable to the weak five-hole shot. Did you catch Burrow's celebration? Yea, it was the bow-and-arrow tribute to Luc Bourdon. Got to love that.

Penguins beat the Flyers, 3-1 (PIT leads series 3-1): Marc-Andre Fluery was the difference in this game. He got peppered with 46 shots and made 45 saves, some in that you might categorize as sensational. The Flyers played well, real well. Mike Richards was an absolute beast on the ice, but it came down to Fleury making saves and Biron, not.

Sharks beat the Ducks, 4-3 (ANH lead series 2-1): The Sharks persevered last night in spite of Evegeni Nabakov. He was kind of awful - Carey Price level soft goals. Scoring 4, should give the Sharks confidence, especially since it was their big guns doing the work.

Red Wings beat the BJs, 4-1 (DET leads series 3-0): Before the puck dropped, Fox Sports Ohio (or whoever shows the BJs games on Center Ice) gave the viewers a look inside the BJs locker room. Wow, they were fucking tense. Not one smile. Just a lot of guys saying cliches ("play our game," etc). Then the Red Wings killed the crowd with that early Holmstrom goal. How impressive was it, that Hossa got the rebound upstairs so quickly off his backhand? Anyway, story of the series, Nash a non-factor and Osgood non-sucking.

Hurricanes beat the Devils, 4-3 (series tied 2-2): What a comeback ruined! Devils fight back from 3-0. Score 2 in the final period and then let up the game winner with less than a second. This is when a short memory comes in handy. Does anyone else think Brodeur acts the same way he did at the end of this game as when some takes the last drumstick at dinner?

What you missed last night while you were blowing off meetings to go look at apartments in Park Slope

New guys with new teams last night and below are the haikus to describe how that went.... or something else, completely.


Flames beat the Flyers, 5-1:
Flames new additions
had a great night. Flyers' new guys -
not sure if they played.

Maple Leafs beat the Capitals, 2-1:
Gerber's helmet now
looks stupid. He should go to
all white or sell ads.

Senators beat the Oilers, 4-2:
Spezza scored quickly and
new additions mike and chris
scored. MacT was mad.

Rangers beat the Islanders, 4-2:
Antropov got a point
There are a thousand new guys
on the Islanders.

Wild comeback and beat the Sharks in OT, 4-3:
Where is Nabakov?
Sharks came out on fire and
then a bad bounce/loss.

Coyotes beat the Bruins, 2-1:
Upshall scored for his
new team. The Bruins have lost
9 of the last 12

Kings comeback to beat the Stars in OT, 5-4:
Handzus capped his hat
trick with the game winner. Its
wild in the west.

Predators win over the Blue Jackets, 4-2:
Weber fought again.
Thats 3 fights in 3 games. And
the preds have won them.

Penguins beat the Panthers, 4-1:
Crosby and Billy
team up and Crosby gets a
goal. Splits D and snipe.

Unless you don't get Versus and also don't live in Dallas or NoCal, there was no reason to miss this game last night

Sharks shut-out the Stars, 1-0:
Devin Setogouchi's goal was all it took. He took a pass in the neutral zone with SPEED and easily side stepped Darryl Sydor (old man is a step behind). On his strong side, Setogouchi's wrister went bar and in. And that was all it took for Sharks to win. Nabakov's best save was probably the two-pad stack he pulled on Fabian Brunnstrom (with an added Mystery, Alaska spin). Of course, I wanted the Stars to tie up (otherwise I was obligated to watch Hills spin-off, The City with the gf). I felt they were being pretty low-energy and even with various face-off wins could not get the puck on net (maybe Robidas can only really really cleary see through the cage) and when Mike Ribiero casually lost the puck at the red line, I was ready to change the channel. However, that last second rush and passing play and shot were high level hockey and the block by the Sharks d-man sealed the shut-out.


Some other stuff:

• Ok, so if the Lightning fired John Tortorella, why can't coach where he wants? I could understand if he quit, but....
• Versus, please shoot promos for games with more than one player in case said player gets run into by Scott Gomez and sprains his ankle... be sure to watch the Ducks plays Ryan Miller and the Sabres tonight on Versus!
  

Weekend Wrap Up OR Taken is all about kicking ass and taking names

If, per chance, you fell asleep without 2 minutes left in the 2nd period of the Stars/Rangers game Friday night, you might have been shocked by the final score of 10-2. See it was 3-2, Stars, until Mike Ribiero scored to make it 4-2 going into the final period. And then, well, as Nemmy might say, disaster.com. I'll try to break it down: Valiquette softening up + stupid penalties + low energy = 6 goals by the Dallas Stars in the 3rd. Steve Ott really had himself a game - a goal and 2 assists and 9 hits. And if hits could be assists, he would have gotten himself one for this play:



So Steve Mason is out for the BJs (and Rick Nash starts dusting off his irons) so Wade Dubielewicz got his first start in a country not named Russia. He played well, but not well enough and not better than his counterpart, MAF of the Penguins. I love the stretch he gets to keep Power Move Nash from putting in the wrap around:


Also on Friday night, Brendan Shanahan fought (yay)


Speaking of old man fights, Bill Guerin fought Ryan Malone, providing the only highlight in the Islanders/Lightning game:

I like Guerin protecting Sean Bergenheim.

To be honest, for all the games on Saturday, there were few great highlights.

Goalies, don't piss of the Red Wings they have a lot of firepower. Rolosson was chased shortly after this:


Mike Green kept his goal scoring streak alive (holy cow!). A really nice snipe and then an empty netter later:


Seriously, doesn't San Jose have a goalie coach to teach Nabakov how to handle a breakaway?


The Red Wings nicely schooled the Penguins yesterday in the very boring Game of the Week on NBC. The Penguins are uniquely bad. They have so much talent and just can't put it together. And I usually love Pierre Maguire, but calling out MAF for poor rebound control on this goal is just crazy. He puts the rebound in the corner, how about calling out the D, for letting Datsyuk get the puck first and then walking around him?


So what did I miss?

-Bress

What you missed last night while you were smelling Marc Savard

Its, Friday, so its Hockey Haikus!

Blackhawks beat the Flames, 5-2:
Phaneuf scored a top
shelf goal, but forgot to play defense.
therefore, the hawks win.

Bruins beat the Senators in the shoot-0ut, 4-3:
Scotty screamed out YYEEEAAAAHHHHHHH!
at the exact right moment
to scare the whole bar.

Oilers beat the Blues in the shoot-out, 2-1:
Two teams who will miss
the playoffs, decide their game
via a skills comp.

Hurricanes beat the Sharks in the shoot-out, 4-3:
Seriously, does
Nabakov even practice
facing breakaways?

Kings beat the Capitals, 5-4:
The Kings scored a lot
of bar and in. but they let
the Caps make it close.

Predators win over the Ducks, 4-2:
I hope neither of
these teams make the playoffs. Their
games have bad lighting.

Avalanche beat the Stars, 3-2:
The Rangers want Sean.
Too bad the Stars have no pull
Its all on waivers.

Panthers win over the Islanders, 3-2:
Zednick beat one man
at the blue line, then jumped Witt
and scored for great goal!