Showing posts with label Hurricanes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hurricanes. Show all posts

well-deserved congratulations

I've posted first NHL career fights before, but hadn't even thought to track first NHL career goals. well, that changes now. although I don't know if a better one in the regular season is possible than the following on 3/20, from Jamie McBain, 22-year-old defenseman, of the Carolina Hurricanes, previously of the Albany River Rats (AHL) and University of Wisconsin. it's a painful one for Penguins fans, as he beat the Pens, in Pittsburgh, with this. McBain's first? the winning goal against the defending Stanley Cup Champions with 0.9 seconds left in overtime .



now, a fight. (I know there was another first NHL fight this month but didn't note what it was, sorry.) here Brett Sutter, of the AHL's Abbotsford Heat, called up again to the Calgary Flames, got his first NHL fight against Brett Festerling, Anaheim Ducks, 3/23. I saw Sutter play just three nights earlier vs the Lake Erie Monsters in Cleveland (and because I was at that game, I wasn't able to watch the Carolina-Pittsburgh game above). a mere two minutes into the game (which Calgary won 3-1), this was a definitive win for Sutter (the 8th member of the famous Sutter family to play in the NHL) according to the hockeyfights.com page:



also, tonight I noticed that the hockeyfights fan page on Facebook was at exactly 15,000 fans (I joined in the old days when it wasn't even 5000). as a fan of round numbers I had to capture it:


 I mentioned it on Twitter, and almost immediately:
 

happened a few days after:


and earlier this month I woke up to:


hey, in all three cases the account has far more "followers" than "following" so it's kind of exciting. (the official NHL account was only following 5500 people with about 340,000 followers when I got added. around trade deadline time, because I'd been using the #nhltrade tag, though not much.) although I think the most exciting, hockey-wise on Twitter, would be to get followed by @DownGoesBrown, or @dellis39...

Hockey Day in Canada, in odd screenshots

I posted a nonsensical preview of Hock--excuse me, Tim Hortons Hockey Day in Canada a couple posts ago. here are the almost equally nonsensical screenshots of a day spent watching all 3 HDIC games (plus some others) online and following along on Twitter, which as of last week offers the glorious option to look at trending topics by country/US city. (Canada has had at least one, and as many as 8, of the 10 TT's be hockey-related virtually every time I've looked, and Tim Hortons has trended at least 3 times in the past week). but I did in fact go out for a couple hours that afternoon! so, not yet a total shut-in!

 

  

lots of quaint outdoorsy stuff. OMG a Nordiques jersey sweater!

  

HDIC is #1! first up was Canadiens @ Senators. I actually wanted Canadiens to win, because Sens were coming into this game on an 8-game winning streak, and 3 of those wins were against Boston & Chicago, and that just pissed me off...

  

 

 

Sens took the lead, but Habs eventually tied it and it went to overtime. Sens won (9-game streak) and the Habs' Cammalleri was injured and will be out for weeks.

  

 

 

yeah, uh...next up: Canucks @ Maple Leafs. this was...um. I wanted Leafs to win regardless, and I especially wanted them to beat the Canucks because of Chicago's loss in Vancouver, and just on general principle. Leafs were off to an amazing start--2 goals by Phil Kessel in the first few minutes. a fight about 4 1/2 minutes in. Leafs went into the second period 3-0, and Canucks pulled Luongo (always fun to see) for Andrew Raycroft, and--

  

Leafs lost the game 5-3. at home. 5 unanswered goals. I'm glad I was too busy commenting on the Blackhawks game online to follow along with the Leafs fans...

  

  

 

I have NO IDEA how Raycroft was a TT in the U.S., after a game involving two Canadian teams.

 
  

  

not Canada: a scene from the Wild @ Sharks game. Minnesota took the early lead, went on to lose 5-2.

 

late game: Oilers @ Flames. I heard this was some sort of record for losing-est teams facing each other--Oilers with 12 in a row, Flames at 9. one of them HAD to win, giving Alberta a grand total of two wins for January. I wanted it to be Oilers because I felt sorrier for them, and because if Flames lost then both teams would have hit double-digit losing streaks...

  

Flames won. boy, did they win. 6-1. Jarome Iginla got his 900th NHL point in this game. and, perhaps inspired by the recent NHL.com Gordie Howe hat trick story, got two goals, two assists, and one fight (against Sheldon Souray, who broke his hand. ouch) 

  

it also meant they swept the 6 games of the "Battle of Alberta" this season, first time ever. 

in other news: I never found an online feed of the Kings @ Bruins game. I would have seen a shootout loss if I had. at least Bruins got a point. and Mark Stuart had a very impressive hit on Anze Kopitar (except now he's out for 4 weeks due to an injury from a fight after the hit). I'm sorry I missed Jack Edwards confusing Johnny Bucyk and Johnny Boychuk during the game, as mentioned at Fire Wagon Hockey (now I'm wondering if Boychuk is of Ukrainian descent, by the way--could be).



oh, and the Blackhawks lost the last game of their 8-game road trip. to CAROLINA. oh well, Hurricanes have been on a winning streak, and a 4-2 loss isn't the worst (it was exciting to see Hawks tie it late in the game, 2-2, with a goal by former Hurricane Andrew Ladd. then Canes scored two more goals in like the next minute or so). for more on the game you can see the story of a Chicagoan who made the trip (braving a snowstorm in the Raleigh area) at Blackhawks Down Low, a new addition to the blogroll.



so...on Hockey Day in Canada all 3 Canada matchups turned out the opposite of what I wanted. and the two teams I follow (well, 3, you can sort of count Leafs) lost, all in games where they had a lead or were at least tied at some point. and I learned I do eventually get tired of listening to Canadians talk about hockey...

while I wait for the Hawks-Avs game to start...

I’m watching the Maple Leafs (1-7-5) play the Hurricanes (lost their last 10 games), somewhat amazed to think that technically one of these teams will win this game. (p.s. I hope it’s the Leafs)
 
I’m also following along on the Leafs’ extremely active SB Nation blog. when the Hawks game starts in a while, I’ll be simultaneously watching two games online, listening to the Hawks on WGN, and following the Hawks, Avs, and Leafs threads on SBN. better get the pizza and beer ready now…