New Video: the 2Man Weekly 1000

In this week's 1000:
Ovy tries to go coast 2 coast
Elias and Kovy abuse the Blues (RHYMES!)
Craig Smith with a sneaky toey
and Matty Martin goes all-out all the time

Enjoy

@t2ma

What you missed last night while your were playing FIFA 2010

Penguins beat the Islanders, 6-4: Even though the Isles lost, I'm glad that Malkin got out of his slump. It was a good attempt at a comeback by the Islanders, that was finally halted when Sutton hit Dupuis from behind. 5 and a game should be enough. Butch Goring was totally wrong, say Dupuis put himself in that position - its call protecting the puck and in every sport and forever in hockey, you put your body between the man and puck (or ball or whatever). If Okposo had scored on any of his 3 breakaways its a different game, but Brent Johnson stood tall or was long or whatever.

Thrashers beat the Maple Leafs, 4-3: Kovalchuk just rips slap shots. Seriously, he can do it from anywhere. And somehow, even though he has a full wind, it also counts a quick release.

Senators beat the Hawks, 4-1: Marian Hossa walked in on a breakaway and blew a slap shot by Brian Elliot. Elliot reacted like I do when I play roller hockey goalie and Zimm tears one at my head. That wasn't the nicest goal of the night though. The toe drag move-to-wrap around from Pat Regin was superb.

Rangers beat the Lightning, 8-2: Marion Gaborik did NOT have all 8 goals. Benson sent along this quote summarizing this game. I'm assuming its from Rick Tocchet, "The bus driver was the best thing we had.” I like Aaron Voros. The guy has been healthy scratch since last March. He gets in the line up and fights. Twice.

Flyers beat the BJs, 5-3: Jeff Carter's backhand is so good, he should just stop taking wrist shots.

Capitals beat the Red Wings, 3-2: Its like every game the Caps get scoring help from some one else. Last night it was David Steckel (jew?)

Ducks beat the Sabres, 5-4: The Ducks were up 4-0 in the first period, chased Lalime and and .... barely won this game.

Sharks beat the Kings, 4-1: Easy stat that will definitely be used during the next Sharks pre-game show: In the past 2 games the Sharks have outscored opponents, 14 to 2.

Weekend Wrap Up OR Will stable ownership undermine the Coyotes play-off run

There were some great goals this weekend. It all started with Bertuzzi's theres-no-room-up-there-but-ill-sneak-it-somehow overtime winner versus the Ducks.



He needed like an 85% wedge to get the puck up that quickly.

There were other sweet OT winners, like Havlat's goal. Kipper had a sick sick game, but who can defend a passing play like this?



Love the patience by Havlat.

Here's Kovy just doing what Kovy does. You can't give him time and space like this in OT. He'll win.





The great goal weekend ended on a nice note with Hossa catching a puck, then doing some infield practice on the Lightning keeper.




There were some saves too, but those are harder to find out youtube.


What did I miss?

-Bress

Brendan Witt

New York Islanders defenceman Brendan Witt was hit by a car in Philadelphia on Tuesday, according to Newsday. But Witt reportedly picked himself up off the road and, after a few profanities, assured everyone he was all right before continuing on his way, prompting one witness to say, "it was like seeing Clint Eastwood, but in hockey."
Witt was crossing Arch Street to get a cup of coffee when a gold Yukon truck made an illegal turn and hit the 34-year-old. Newsday says Witt tried to jump on the hood of the vehicle before being thrown to the ground as he was struck.
"I'm okay," Witt told the crowd as he dusted himself off, according to Newsday. "I've got to go play some hockey. I'm a hockey player. I'm okay. No big deal." "Boy that guy is tough," added the same witness, one of many who saw the event occur.
But the 6'2, 219-pound blueliner downplayed the incident.
"I just got lucky," said Witt, who oddly enough had declined an offer for a drive to Wachovia Center from the team's medical staff just prior to the accident. "Fortunately nothing bad happened. I'm just a little sore."
The Humboldt, Saskatchewan native chose not to call police or get medical care, and played in Tuesday night's 6-2 loss to the Flyers.

Witt is a maniac

By the way someone in one of my leagues is trying to justify trading Frolik and poopy Vanek straight up for Kovalchuk. And the counter party in the league remains quiet and why of course would you make that trade in the first place. You can't trade 2 dimes for a quarter ya know?

Witt is an animal. He gave us the best on ice look at camp two years ago. Than he taped up Nemy to a chair and carried him off. We'll air that one day.

- Pancho Barilla

Crib Notes - Atlanta Thrashers

Atlanta Thrashers
Finished 4th in the Southeast. Did not make the playoffs
Added Pavel Kubina and Nik Antropov
Word is that Kik Zherdev is in talks with the team.
Many Legace is getting a shot at camp as well.

Questions going into 2009-2010:
The main question I have about the Thrashers is how far can Kovy take this team?
What happens to Kovalchuk's contract after this season?
Does he get traded? Resigned?
Who is the #1 goalie: Hedberg or Lehtonen? Does Manny Legace bounce back with the Thrashers?
How come Angelo Esposito - Pitt's 1st round pick in 2007 who came over with the Hossa trade - can't make this lineup?
Will Maxim Afinogenov make the team? Is there any upside here? Is it all upside now?

Poised for a breakout season:
I'm not sure the term breakout applies but Pavel Kubina will make this defense 400x better.

If you had to buy one Thrasher sweater:
I like the blue jerseys except for the fact that they are not symmetrical. The right sleeve craziness doesn't work for me. The colors are a little odd at first but it works with dark blue breezers and helmets. The dark red 3rd unis are garbage.



Player whose game you like:
I think Zach Bogosian is a defensive beast. In a few years when he fills into his frame and has a shitload of confidence he will be running things.

Ilya Kovalchuk:
When I lay in bed and dream about playing hockey I like to imagine that I have his snapshot.

Old guys:
Slava Kozlov is 37
Johan Hedberg is 36
Todd White is 34
This team is sneaky ripe

Young guys:
Zach Bogosian is 19
Last year's #4 overall draft pick Evander Kane is 18 and has a good shot of making the team

Tough guys:
Eric Boulton handles most of the heavy lifting.
Chris Thorburn scrapped last season.
Former Coyotes tough guy Josh Gratton could make the team.
Didn't Kovy complain in the past that this team gets pushed around too much?

Favorite old school Thrasher:
Is there one? My favorite Atlanta Flame is Bill Clement.

Goaltending coach:
Steve Weeks



Nostalgia:
The Thrashers first ever draft pick was Pat Stefan who blew that famous empty netter.

Interesting?:
According to Wikipedia: The Atlanta Flames name originated from the burning of Atlanta led by U.S. Army general William Sherman during the American Civil War.
Why would you name a team after something like that? Could you imagine the San Fran Quakes? The New York 9/11s?

NHL 94 players:
Since the Thrashers came into our lives post 1994 here's a question: Would you have sex with Kate Gosselin?

Prediction?
Kovy gets resigned after mgmt. promises to get a new netmindef next season.

YouTube:


- Nemmy

Summer of Couch

Its been a tumultuous summer for me. I won't bore you with the details. Here we are about 2 weeks before the season is about to start. This post will not be a preview or a prediction, but a bunch of things (some crazy) that have been swirling around my head the past few months.

When hockey season ended, my broken leg did not heal magically. I was still all movement-inhibited, except there wasn't much on TV ... except for baseball. This was before the Mets epic injury mammoth (bug doesn't do it justice). Anyway, so I'm watching baseball a lot and just kept thinking, what if NHL players could only use wood bats..er sticks.
Stay with me for a sec - The reason that pro baseball only uses wood bats is a safety issue (they don't want pitchers getting killed by line drives). Granted, that logic doesn't work for the NHL. The only thing getting harmed by the one-piece wonder sticks are goalie GAAs. But wouldn't it be nice to see players battle for a puck and not see a stick break and then not see the expected slashing call? If the NHL went to wood sticks only, would we see a huge decline in scoring? Probably not, Jason Spezza does alright. I guess the trade off would be that no curve would be illegal. How about that? What if players could use either a wood stick or a composite, but the wood stick would have no limitations? Chara would have a 7 foot tall piece of lumber. Kovy might have a Sherwood Original that looked like a spoon. Its not logical and its unnecessary, but this is what you think about when you are couch-ridden with a broken leg for most of the summer.

Are you still reading? Ok, here's more

There will probably be another work stoppage/strike/lockout in 2012. Its not just because of the Paul Kelly firing. But once the Hossa deal was "investigated" by the NHL, you had to know something was up. Here's the thing: The NHL owners "won" the last CBA. They got their salary cap. They got players to roll back salaries (remember that 24%) and put 55% of their pay in escrow. The owners got a lot of stuff. They players didn't fare too badly. They still get paid damn well. And that should be enough. But owners are still losing money (I'm not going to comment on the Coyotes or the Islanders) and so the system still isn't good enough. Some GMs (with their owners blessing, I'm sure) found "loopholes" in cap system. Remember, a loophole is still legal. So, teams are locking up players for a longer deals in order to have a lower cap hit. I fail to see the problem. Its a good thing that fans get their favorite players on their team for long periods of time. Its something that fans can look forward to. It gives their team an identity. I get that front-loading contracts gives cash-heavy teams an advantage, but there will always be some advantage. In a nutshell, the reason there will be a work stoppage is because the players don't like the CBA because of the cap and the escrow and the owners don't like it because it wasn't airtight enough. Have fun watching the KHL in 2012. I know Ovy is sneaky happy.

There's more, but its only Monday. I need to spread myself out. I'm still on the DL, so I'm sure more crazy thoughts will come to me.

-Bress

So last night...

You knew the Capitals were going to come back last night versus the Islanders but you didn't know how and in what time span. I tuned in and out, but the last time I tuned in before the Mike Green overhaul was when the Isles had a 3-2 lead. The powerplay started and you knew a good team which the Capitals are, would probably be able with 10 minutes to go, to find a way to at least tie this up versus the last place team. The powerplay started and it was over before it began. I tuned back in about 5 minutes later to find that the Isles were down again and before I could even let out a Bressler groan which many of his friends know all too well, Mike Green's hands were in the air with another PPG. The man has 30 goals and over 40 assists and he missed 10 games. What!!!!! This is ridiculous. Howie Rose was saying how he couldn't imagine how any one else would win the Norris. Billy Jaffe than said Chara and Boyle would get high mention....yes they would but are you serious this year Mike Green? If he doesn't win the Norris, than the 2man Advantage ceases to exist...my goodness!

Of course Nikolai Khabibulin lost the shut-out bid for my fantasy squad with 2 seconds left on the clock. Are you joking dude? They took a penalty and the freakin wheels fell off. I would have rather he lost the game at this point. Go home!

On to other news. Last night, I created a new NHL 09 squad. Wow! The name of the created team is the St. Paul Spartans. The jerseys...well lets just say that they resemble the team colors of the Miami Dolphins from the first tecmo bowl nintendo game.

Obviously the team on the right.

Like a metallic sky blue with greens and dark blues throughout. So Sexy! Ridiculous but sexy! The squad is 5 men and a goalie like the King and his court. Matty Weindel centers the unit with Brad Mcgan on the left side and John Giardino on the right. What's really great is that they make you choose a name that the announcers call you by. Obviously they don't have Weindel but they have many other W's. I chose Winchester as the nickname for Matty, Maclean for Brad because I loved John Maclean from the Devils and more from Die Hard and Gianolla for Gio which is utterly ridiculous. The D-unit is comprised of Nemy and Scotty. Last night there was a great moment between the two D-men. The following video is Scott Stevens top 10 hits and # 3 when Niedermayer is tracking the opponent and curling up to hip him when Stevens comes freighting in to haul the trash out resembles best what happened last night.


Scotty Barbonus has Iginla in his sights and just as I was about to take him out, I switched over to Dance and Nemy laid him out.

Our netminder is none other than avid 2man blogger Mikey Heals playing with one hell of a color coordination. Undefeated in his first 5 starts with 2 shutouts and is looking strong. Mcgan is slightly in the points lead out of the gate with 17 in 5 games with Wendel 1 behind. It's a strong unit.

Man I hope Kovalchuk has 100 points. What a game winner last night. So good at hockey. Has everyone seen this because damn!




- Barbonus

What you missed last night while you were learning that apple pie is not a great pre-game meal

Penguins beat the Devils, 6-1: If this game happened when I could write a haiku about it, it would be about how Sutter will get fired. Lou loves the late season firing, even though its only worked once (Robinson replacing Ftorek in 2000). I guess its a good thing that I can't write that haiku, because that would be overlooking how well the Penguins are playing.

Maple Leafs beat the Flyers, 3-2: Biron was pulled in this game. How is it possible that goaltending is consistently inconsistent in Philly?

Capitals win over the Islanders, 5-3: Mike Green got goals 29 and 30 last night. WOW. He never had more than 14 in junior. Un-real.

Blackhawks beat the Blues, 3-1: John Toews had a great goal where he cut in the slot with the puck and as he was tripped up by 2 Blues, he tucked the puck in far side. It will be nice to see him in the play-offs.

Thrashers beat the Sabres in OT, 3-2: I can't think of anything notable from this game besides Kovy's game winner. I have no idea how he beat Miller five-hole.

Coyotes shut-out the Avalance, 3-0: I get it Colorado, you really want Tavares (or Hedman), but isn't getting shut-out by the Phoenix Coyotes a little too obvious?

Skiing and thinking hockey

So Nemy is over his max games played in the center position in one fantasy league we are in so he dished out Malkin to me for a hot Ilya Kovalchuk. It's a good move for him but hey in the end we are all in an all out race to the bottom of the cauldron. People keep getting fired from the Islanders TV team and I can't help thinking about the insane dream I had with Jessica Alba last night that got cut off because someone screamed outside. Yea, thanks outside drunk screaming guy at 4 am.

So I am in Vail, Colorado and I am testing a phat pair of Demo powder skiis and tearing up the mountain. Today, the weather was so fantastic. I had a backwards Mets fitted cap on with Nemy's blueblockers that I am happy to say are still intact. Yesterday was brutal windy cold. It got so bad toward the end of the day that my mom was crying down the mountain and bleeding a little from her face from the wind burn. Never seen that in Vail but hey we are back on track with good weather. The real cool thing about being here is that I get to watch Altitude, the Avs network. Nice overtime winning goal connection between Wolski and Svatos the other night. I love their announcer. We also got to here the Jaffster doing color which was even better.

Turned on the tv this morning to see OVY's goal and than it went to commercial. I don't even know what channel it was. Hallmark was on the bottom of the screen and I looked at my brother and said...what???? My dad is sitting next to me with a screwdriver saying he can beat all the fighters in the UFC...I said, "I can't write this if your talking to me but than I said out of curiosity to here how he conjured this up, "How may I ask would you complete this task?" He goes, "I would just shoot 'em with a tommy gun, old school style!"

Fantasy update:

Matheiu Schneider - traded to Montreal...great powerplay action and he actually just scored on the powerplay so Juice if you need a D-man.

Richard Zednik - Some interesting volume over there right now. Take a look.

Matt Cullen - Involvement...good volume

By the way, as I type this Mike Richards is putting up just a bullet blast fantasy evening. A shorthanded goal, 3 assists, two on the powerplay, +3 and 2 Pims. How the hell did he do this and get in the box too. Uhhh...I love this game.

This video is Mike Richards night.

- Zell

What you misses last night because you were in Brooklyn... weird brooklyn

There were a ton of games last night and I was in Brooklyn "experiencing" Winter in Alaska - ok it was pretty fucking cool, but I did miss a lot of hockey. Again, I am thankful to my DVR and NHL on the Fly: Final.


Canucks finally win, beat the Hurricanes, 4-3: Mats Sundin actually participated in a positive manner with a wrap around goal, but it was Alex Burrows late third period shorthanded top shelf backhand game winner that got the W.

Canadiens beat the Penguins, 4-2: My favorite goal was Chris Higgins super fast shorthanded breakaway snap shot snipe.

Kings shut-out the Senators, 1-0: I imagine the suicide rate in Ottawa went up after this one.

Hawks beat the Oilers, 3-1: Do any goalies have black pads? I thin Huet, who was outstanding last night, would look more badass with black instead of red.

Stars win over the Flames, 3-1: The Avery addition by subtraction rule!

Panthers beat the Maple Leafs in OT, 4-3: Would the Leafs be a better team with a better goalie? It always appers like shots are just squeezing through Toskala - just like McCabe's OT blast. I predict they will overpay for a keeper this summer.

Thrashers beat the Rangers in the shoot-out 2-1: Things I didn't expect to see last night: The Sopranos cast at Grave's number retirement and Ilya Kovulchuk miss an open net.

Predators beat the Coyotes, 2-1: The Predators sneaky keep winning and might turn a profit this year. Wow!

Capitals win over the Devils, 5-2: Caps goal of the night: Mike Greens power play snipe - just a sick pass (from Semin), handle and shot. Devils goal of the night: Langenbruner's short handed breakaway - read Theodore's poke check and roofed the puck early.

Islanders beat the Lightning, 3-1: Vinny had a goal and a fight. Vinny being Vinny

Blues beat the Blue Jackets, 4-2: Rick Nash has sneaky speed.