feel-good hit of the year, of course

I missed some afternoon stuff I'd have attended to watch a certain fantastic NHL game (hint: playoffs!) but had to go out last night for a fantastic AHL game, and thus missed the rest of the action except the end of the West Coast games. so I didn't see this live. but I can safely say, since I've gotten really active in the hockey Twitter world, nothing has been talked about and passed around as quickly as this. you presumably know the Matt Cooke-Marc Savard incident (or will Google it if you don't) and know why people were saying "Evander Kane will get a standing ovation next time he plays in Boston" and so forth. Cooke got up after this (the stretcher wasn't needed) so it's not as serious as the image makes it look like...



some people though this might be Evander Kane's (yes, named after Evander Holyfield) first NHL fight, but according to his hockeyfights.com fight card it's his second. the first was against Deryk Engelland, also playing for Pittsburgh, in early November. according to Engelland's card he had his first NHL fights this year in the preseason. the hockeyfights.com page for Cooke-Kane should be lively...

at any rate, even if the Atlanta Thrashers couldn't make the playoffs, their last game of the year (which they won at home, 1-0) will be remembered. Thrashers are one of the teams I regret not getting to see this season...I'll definitely try next year (I've also promised to follow them more closely since Chicago Wolves is their affiliate).

more SPHL mayhem: Fayetteville @ Knoxville

last Saturday night I was at my first junior hockey (USHL) game and it was my first time seeing a coach thrown out of a game. the same night in the AHL, Abbotsford Heat's coach, Jim Playfair, was thrown out of his game for what the Vancouver Sun called "one of the greatest sports tantrums of all time."  (a short video version here; yes, definitely more dramatic than what happened in the USHL game.) and I learned of the ridiculous Fayetteville FireAntz at Knoxville Ice Bears game in the SPHL. (you may recall I blogged another SPHL game this year, Louisiana IceGators vs Knoxville, which also wracked up huge penalty minutes and resulted in a coach thrown out. I confess I'm disappointed I won't get to see any games in this league this season.) this has been popular on YouTube:



I'm trying to figure it out from the boxscore but not entirely succeeding.

some penalties in the first, and the game was tied 2-2. then by the end of the second, when the brawl happened, Knoxville was up 5-3.

more trouble in the third...

 

and then...

final score 9-4. a few days later, 7 players and 2 coaches were suspended. tonight, these teams will face each other again...with a slightly different roster.

that was something. Hawks lose 8-3

do I want to talk about last night's Blackhawks game vs the Blue Jackets? no, not especially, but there's a few things worth sharing. just this game; I need to put together a whole "Hawks keep finding different and spectacular ways to lose post-Olympics" post. I actually wanted to go to this game because I had such a good time seeing the Hawks play in Columbus in January. Aubrey of Buckeyes are Deadly Nuts went to the game and The Mel of a fountain of useless information went from Chicago. I'd have been deaf from the cannon that goes off when the Jackets score if I had.

according to the NHL.com recap "The eight goals for the Blue Jackets set a mark for most scored at home and tied the franchise record for most in a game." it was bad when the Jackets scored 32 seconds in, bad when they took a 2-0 lead, bad when they got a 2-goal lead again in the second period with the game at 3-1 (by the end of the game I'd already forgotten it'd been 2-1 and not at all hopeless for a while). they got a goal on a penalty shot, they got their first power play goal in 20 attempts...and so forth. THE SCORE WAS 8-1 FOR A WHILE. 8-1. 5-1 and I still hoped for an epic comeback despite how badly the Hawks were playing. but by 8-1 I could only hope the Hawks wouldn't lose as badly as San Jose did to Dallas last week (8-2).

and they managed to get two more goals. Adam Burish got his first of the season. Jordan Hendry, the one goal-less Blackhawk, scored late in the year, but when Burish came back from injury we had a player with 0 goals again. no longer! oh, and he fought Derek Dorsett early in the first. Burish lost, but at least the fight got a higher-than-usual-for-the-Blackhawks rating on hockeyfights.com.

I'd have preferred the fight be when the Hawks were down, say, 4-1, and had a chance to turn it around, and got motivated... Blackhawks haven't allowed more than 5 goals against all this season (Minnesota won 6-5, but in a shootout). they hadn't lost by more than 4 goals (a 5-1 loss to Vancouver). needless to say, they'd never been down by 7 goals this year. Blackhawks could have hit 100 points (or 101) in this game; San Jose was first to hit that in the West in their game later last night. Hawks at least got the playoff spot clinched because Calgary lost their game.

do I want to talk goaltending, defense, motivation? NO, I want to gripe at what Second City Hockey did for their game preview thread:

okay...I am KofC on the SBN blogs (and nearly all places I comment; I'm kofchicago on some others and on Twitter). it's the short form of the nickname I got from my main Flickr account. not long after establishing myself as KofC I noticed that's what the Knights of Columbus use in their logo. I found a particularly great sign and used it as my icon there, and I make a point of looking for KofC signs in any city I visit--see the tagged photos here. (Cleveland; Elgin, IL; Hamtramck, MI; Quincy & Melrose, MA, among others. I didn't find one IN Columbus yet though!) pretty soon Flickr friends started posting KofC signs for me too. it's just a running joke; I don't endorse the Knights' politics or anything (but I did win a second-place spelling bee trophy from them as a kid). anyway, I know it was just a coincidence but I was weirded out, and having that logo/my screenname attached to the worst loss of the season? AAAAAAARRGHHH.

oh well. two other amusing things, from listening to the WGN 720 radio broadcast. so Cristobal Huet was pulled in the second (after 5 goals against) and Antti Niemi came in (one goal against him). Huet returned at the beginning of the third (2 more goals scored against), but the broadcasters didn't notice until a couple minutes from the end of the game! they referred to him as "Niemi" several times! then finally noticed, and apologized afterwards.

and Nick Boynton, who's played just a few games with the Blackhawks, was the post-game interview. he said "...and the game got a little chippy." now I think I need an "award" for any player or broadcaster who uses that phrase (look, I needed SOMETHING to cheer me up after that game.) perhaps my famous chocolate chip cookies made with bourbon? (in theory--there's no way for me to actually give them cookies).

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...

junior hockey line brawl!

this was a very discouraging day in NHL games, in my opinion, but I was overjoyed to find this video. I noticed it posted on hockeyfights.com last night but didn't realize then how good it was...near the end of the second period in the Medicine Hat Tigers at Lethbridge Hurricanes (WHL) game, a line brawl erupted. all the players paired off. and yes, that means...goalie fight! I was tempted to just post this and let you find that part out but in today's busy world...I'll just spoil it. so there's a goalie fight. (and then two other players fight...guys, I know you wanted to be part of the excitement but personally I think goalies fighting is kind of the grand finale, right?) the commentary on this is entertaining, too.



here's the hockeyfights.com page linking to the goalie matchup (Tyler Bunz vs Linden Rowat, who each got a game misconduct). Medicine Hat won this game 5-4, and another game against Lethbridge tonight, 4-1 (it took more effort than I thought it would to find those scores!

a reminder to the St. Louis Blues

more from Hockey (1969), to preview the two Blackhawks-Blues games this week. yes, again with Penguins in the photos. oh well.

Blue Ray Fortin (19) and Noel Picard (4) are foiled by Penguins Binkley (30) and Price (right). In his frustration, Picard almost hooks Price.

so, I happened across an item that the St. Louis Blues' D.L. King, referred to as the team's enforcer, would be returning to play after being out since October with an injury. and my thoughts were approximately:

ADKLFHDSLFHDSFJDSJFHKJJKFDSJAK seriously OMG you mean this is what the Blues are like WITHOUT their enforcer? 

THIS IS WITHOUT THEIR ENFORCER?!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

really? the nasty game I saw at the United Center in December, and the infamous four-fights-including-Toews'-second-NHL-fight-ever game Jan. 2 in St. Louis? those were without their designated tough guy? (although Cam Janssen seems as much of an enforcer, maybe they have two?) they're in the top 5 teams for fighting majors in the NHL without King...oh boy.

yeah, so I admit I wasn't paying close attention to the Blues until soon before the Hawks finally played them this year, not till December, so I forgot who wasn't playing. well, whether King is in this week's games or not, I just want to remind the Blues, to adapt a phrase from the Cookie Monster:

Hockey fights are a sometimes treat

obviously I like them and so do the hockey fans I know. a game with a lot of tension and roughing and near-fights can be entertaining. a fight or two at the right moment--after a questionable hit, or to spark some energy in your team and its fans, or just to give your fans something to enjoy when the team is hopelessly behind (you certainly know what I mean)--is fine.

Blue Jimmie Roberts (6) fails to get past Penguin Noel Price.

but there's such a thing as too much, when the game just gets slowed down by all the fights, and you don't look good, you just look like you're covering up for your lack of skill, and that's what the January game was like. (to be fair, the Blues have been winning games recently after a lousy start with the new coach...)

so...resist the urge to constantly goon it up, okay? or if you must, just save it up for a bench-clearing brawl. I'm fine with one every once in a while...

big night for the blue & white

...no matter what this screenshot from NHL.com shows. so earlier in the season I made fun of a Maple Leafs game 3 Stars with Phil Kessel still in his Bruins uniform. well, this tops it, in a big way, although in this case it's understandable--all the NHL trades of the past 3 days happened so fast, there's barely time for new photos. I wonder if this has ever happened before--all 3 stars from one team, and all shown in their now-outdated uniforms.

as you may know, in their first game with the new goalie and new star defenseman (and Sjostrom), the Maple Leafs shut out the Devils 3-0 (Devils, by the way, were using the goalie who isn't Martin Brodeur). and:

 

note: that's the "official" Hartford Whalers Twitter. I was already going to mention it here...and today because I mentioned Whalers in a tweet, they started following me. I was elated. people with a public Twitter feed are used to getting spam followers based on words they use (I was telling someone about a tweet that got real estate spam--and got two more real estate spam followers because of that one), but I definitely don't mind this. 

anyway, besides the shutout, Phaneuf got into a fight about 6 minutes into the game, so he's got the "truculence" and all. this also ended a long winless streak for the Leafs. meanwhile, the Canucks' 7-game winning streak was snapped in a 3-2 loss (yay! even though it was by the Canadiens). and Boston...scored first against the Capitals, then went on to lose 4-1 (the last was an empty-netter--pffftt, I always think of those as half a goal at best). that's 8 losses in a row...and a record 11 wins in a row for the Caps. 

  

I think I forgot to point out that after the beating by the Flames Saturday, Edmonton finally won after 13 losses...against Carolina. and note that the Flames' first game after the player trades, they got shut out 3-0 by the Flyers.  tonight, I also watched an exciting Red Wings @ Sharks game (Detroit won 4-2 after Sharks blew their 2-0 lead), even though I didn't want either team to win. and I'm glad I caught the end of the Coyotes @ Predators--a scoreless game went to shootout, and the shootout went so long that I watched extra little boxes pop up on the screen to record attempts. after 10 rounds, Phoenix won.

something a little older, now. through Maple Leaf game threads, I'd heard there was a Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi edition, but never encountered it. the New York Times' hockey blog Slap Shot happened to post a fight in the Punjabi version recently, and through YouTube I found another: a decent Colton Orr vs Shawn Thornton bout (right off the faceoff, which is always absurd/entertaining) from Dec. 2009. I can only assume they're talking about "haymakers" and "heavyweights"...

recent NHL fights, late January

here's some miscellaneous hockey fight material I'm finally getting around to posting (all in one post so any imaginary readers who really don't like hockey fights can skip it). on Friday night, not to look like I'm ripping off the Friday Night Fight feature at Hockeenight. ...since the last fight post, first Anaheim and then Philadelphia reached 50 fights for the season, and Calgary is the only team averaging more than a fight per game (right now they've lost 9 games in a row, so the fights obviously aren't sparking any wins...). Zenon Konopka reached 20 fights this season (21 tonight). once again I admit I'm strangely and mildly obsessed with the guy, and this great piece from the Tampa Tribune just adds to it--funny and sad stories about his family and childhood in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. one of the best player profile pieces I've seen this season.

I'll just link a few of these to the hockeyfights.com pages, in case anyone missed them:

Jan. 21 Blue Jackets-Bruins game, here's Jared Boll vs Milan Lucic, Lucic's first fight since returning after injury (Jan. 29 was his first goal since then!)

in the Jan. 21 Rangers-Flyers game with four fights, Marian Gaborik vs Daniel Carcillo was the most surprising and debated

in the Jan. 27 Flames-Stars game, Eric Nystrom vs Mark Fistric, there was controversy over Fistric hitting with his helmet--accidental or not? he received an "attempt to injure" and Nystrom got an unsportsmanlike conduct

except for a terrific night out at the Whirlaway bar in Chicago's Logan Square watching it with a bunch of other hockey bloggers and Twitterers, last Saturday's Blackhawks @ Canucks game was pretty miserable, one of the 5-1 games I referred to in a previous post. (oh, and the infamous partying by the team after the game...I'll post about it [finally] this weekend.) every Canucks game seems to produce another player for Hawks fans to loathe. this time...Ryan Kesler! vs Andrew Ladd, who has about a fight per season. those of us in the bar were stunned by Kesler's ridiculous wrestling move. I'm not the hockey fight expert but...that seems like something you just don't do (and of course Kesler made it worse by calling Ladd a "coward" in the media later. WTF?). maybe he had legitimate gripes about Ladd's past behavior, maybe not, but again--what the hell is this?



the most surprising fight, though, is the Predators' Steve Sullivan vs the Avalanche's Wojtek Wolski. it's the second NHL fight for Sullivan--his last was 1997--and the first NHL fight for Wolski. I will definitely make a habit of posting first NHL fights when I see them.



the blog View from My Seats posted a survey, 1/18, for Least Likely to Fight on each NHL team. but just since then, Gaborik, Sullivan, and Wolski, all of who seemed unlikely, all got in fights. so who knows?

also of note, a 1/27 Denver Post piece by Adrian Dater about enforcers. and this week on Twitter, @RealDenverSport (who I follow, and who writes the Real Denver Sports blog) was debating @VicLombardi of Denver's CBS-4 about hockey fights--apparently Lombardi isn't a fan and CBS-4 wasn't in the habit of showing fights in their stories about the Avalanche. the site now has a commentary up about changing the policy, looks like...

goalies gone wild!

if the most wonderful thing that can happen in NHL hockey is winning some sort of giant shiny trophy, then the second most wonderful is...a goalie fight. even better than a hat trick or thrilling overtime victory--I mean, c'mon, those happen pretty often (well, for some teams). best of all is of course goalies fighting each other, but any sort of goalie-related scuffle is exciting. here's two (neither of which are technically fights, so I had to find non-hockeyfights.com video)...

the one that got a lot of attention was this, Wednesday night in St. Louis Blues @ Montreal Canadiens (Blues won the game):



but thanks to this post at Sportress of Blogitude I found out Monday night in the Minnesota Wild @ Dallas Stars game (I was watching a different game, and I think I never found a live broadcast of this one), the Wild's backup goaltender Josh Harding battled the Stars'  Steve Ott:



Harding had fought a goalie in the minor leagues, according to a linked article. Wild lost 4-3.

in other hockey news, some sort of giant shiny trophy was briefly "lost" this week. OOPS.

the Flames make it to 50! (and beyond)

no, not points this season, though I guess they reached that mark relatively recently. I mean, Calgary was the first team to rack up 50 fighting majors in the 2009-10 season. the next closest was Anaheim Ducks with 43. then the teams played each other tonight and added two fights in the first period (Ducks won 5-4). Flames' previous game was vs. Nashville Predators, who have the fewest FM--a mere 13, one of which was from the McGrattan-Belak fight in that game (Preds won 1-0).

I thought the impressive stat was that Flames have 14 players with fighting majors so far this year. then I noticed Blackhawks have 11--more than I'd have guessed, but some are players who virtually never fight and some are Rockford IceHogs who got called up a few times. ...and I noticed Flames' next game is against the Sharks Monday night. I'll try to actually tune in at the start unlike all their recent games.

continuing my cataloging of recent multi-fight NHL games (then abandoning it after this post):

Canadiens @ Rangers: 2 fights, 2nd period (but one involved Sean Avery)
Bruins @ Kings: 2 fights, 1st period
Devils @ Avalanche: 3 fights, involving 6 different players
Leafs @ Capitals: 2 fights, 3rd period
Ducks @ Kings, 3 fights
Senators @ Rangers, 2 Carkner-Brashear fights in the 1st period

I certainly haven't watched all those, so I'll just include (and thanks for the advice on how to resize these) the only fight that really matters from recent games: a Blackhawks-Red Wings fight from Sunday! I'm pretty sure there are more fights between fans of these teams than between the players...and Versteeg hasn't had a fight since Dec. 2008. right at the end of the first, it's brief and a little bloody, and the WGN 720 announcers (of course here you get the TV ones...NBC! both games NBC has shown live this year had fights) liked this a lot.

"Holy guacamole, what a fight!"

okay, it's late, and I'm tired, and finishing the giant can of Molson I bought at the Albany-Renssalaer train station (but couldn't drink on the Amtrak back, unfortunately) feels like a chore at this point, as does blogging tonight...but I've gotta put up a couple fight videos, it's been a while. and it's been a busy week for NHL fights. checking hockeyfights.com for games just since Saturday, I noticed a high number of games with more than one fight. let's see:

Flames @ Canucks: 2 fights (I was watching this on a friend's computer on my trip, but only saw the 3rd, fightless period. quite an impressive Prust-Rypien battle)
Blues @ Kings: 3 fights
Avalanche @ Flames: 3, all in the 1st 4 minutes, including one only 20 seconds in! (forgot the start time on this one and missed them). this fight got a very high rating...the announcers are rather entertaining: "Holy guacamole, what a fight!" ...but you can find a more subdued feed with different announcers, one who uses the delightful phrase "haymaker city!"



Senators @ Thrashers: 2 fights
Blue Jackets @ Blues: 4, all in the 1st period
Canucks @ Wild: 3, all in the 3rd period
Bruins @ Ducks: 2, both in the 1st period
Capitals @ Lightning: 2, both in the 3rd period. one was (OF COURSE) Zenon Konopka, who actually got a win

and THIS one, where Ovechkin (!) moves to fight Downie (despite what the idiot announcers say about him not answering the bell) and Bradley hilariously jumps in. lots of debating about this one...I don't have strong feelings about these teams so I'm not going to offer much of an opinion (but I kind of wish Eager had done this for Toews in that Blues game the other week)


 
I finally noticed that not only is the Western Conference leading the NHL standings, but it looks to be leading in fights, too. not that there's a direct correlation; both the Sharks and Blues are in the top 10 of fighting majors, and they're having very different seasons. I know people keep stats on fights, but does anyone calculate those against other hockey stats? this all bears further investigation...maybe even by me.

(successfully resized these videos after the original post had them too large--thanks for the help)

Blackhawks @ Goodwill & other notes

I'm working on getting some goodies from my trip posted, plus there's recent hockey fights to discuss, but a few quick items...first, a typo I'm sure has been made many times before:

...but after that Milan Lucic Total Temperature Control commercial, all I can think of is Zenon Konopka doing an ad for a lighting store!

 

well, it's Goodwill, so what if all the letters aren't in "Wednesday"--at that price, does it matter? now theoretically I could go to this tomorrow, I do like Arlington Heights (a northwest suburb near O'Hare) but I'd have to figure out how to get there, and I've never actually met any hockey players or put much thought into what I'd say to them if I did (okay, I dream of running into athletes at some random place, but not where I'd have to wait in line)--just that hey, they're doing a great job (and sotto voce hint that Fraser should leave the fighting to someone else).

I mentioned the lights-out game the other night. the other oddity was the laser at a Flames-Canucks game from some creep in the audience, and a big fight in the KHL. both those link to Deadspin pieces because as always there's some amusing comments. in the case of the laser story, there's also a bit about the questionable goal at the Flyers-Penguins game, and that brought out something I rarely see in Deadspin comments--people who like different teams arguing and mudslinging. (strange that something that ruins comments sections on almost any other popular sports site is so rare there--of course they do have a stricter policy for commenting which I've never tried to figure out, mostly because I don't think I have anything funny to add.)

Toews got in a fight, Zenon scored a goal...

...and yet, the sun rose again this morning, it's January so all the top TV news stories in Chicago are about the cold, and I drank lousy coffee later in the day than is a good idea. the world goes on.

one of my favorite cliched sports phrases is "You know, these teams don't like each other very much." having seen the extremely chippy Blackhawks first game against the St. Louis Blues this season (in person), and their first road game against them on Saturday (online)...well, it's all I can think of. I already posted the penalty minutes summary, and a screenshot of the five (!) fights that ended up on hockeyfights.com. (9 fighting majors, so it's more like 4.5 fights?) this game also was the front page story there to start the week (the first time I've seen the Hawks mentioned in one since I started looking at that site, I think).

Saturday, I didn't find an online feed till more than halfway through the first period, and a lot had happened by then. Tomas Kopecky, who Hawks fans have been complaining about (as "useless") scored the first goal. and the second. his first 2-goal game...and he'd only had one prior goal this season. (he almost got a hat trick later. Blackhawks haven't had one this season, and it'd have been hilarious if he was first.) you may have seen real game recaps, so you know about how the Hawks got tons of penalties and the refs missed some on the Blues. Blues were on a seven-minute power play. Blackhawks got 63 penalty minutes in this game (they'd had 436 total in the previous 40 games). Patrick Sharp was knocked down in a possibly clean hit...no penalty. he came back later to score two goals himself, the best revenge. Brent Sopel, also not a favorite of Hawks fans this year, was very useful in the game. a Blues fan taunted him--I don't have a shot of that, but I tried to keep up with the fights. it was exhausting.

oh yeah, the Jonathan Toews vs. David Backes fight, right near the beginning of the second. I'm not sure what that was about, but...well, good for Toews for standing up for himself and "sending a message" and all, but he didn't do well and let's hope he doesn't make a habit of it. I had to check--it was only his second NHL fight, the first in Nov. 2008 vs. a Phoenix Coyotes player.  the Toews-Backes fight page is here (once again I had trouble embedding the YouTube version); all 5 fights have both the Blues and Hawks broadcast versions on hockeyfights.com.

meanwhile, on Twitter, some random guy (not a follower, I found this searching #Blackhawks) who probably doesn't watch hockey much happened to catch THAT game...

Saturday was the first game for the Blues' new coach Davis Payne. I'm not even going to count this in my bad headlines series because it's just so obvious:

 

in other news--I totally missed Zenon Konopka's birthday. he's less known as a forward for the Tampa Bay Lightning and more for being the NHL fight leader so far this season, as chronicled on his hockeyfights.com fight card. but on his 29th birthday, 1/2/10, in a game that was ultimately a 3-1 defeat of the Penguins, he scored his second goal of the season (and first goals since 2005...!)

The Hockey News recently posted Getting To Know: Zenon Konopka, in which I learned...his father is Zenon Sr.! and he thinks the Oakland Raiders have the best uniform in any sport. and chocolate chip cookie dough (yes!) is his favorite ice cream flavor. and he tells of the time he got pelted with beer bottles and fish heads (uh, at a game). I don't exactly have a high opinion of the Lightning after seeing them play in Chicago, but that was a fun read, anyway.

I have to quote this post at Sabre Kollisions: "Do you think Zenon gets depressed when he Googles himself and auto fill kicks in with 'girl of the 21st century?'" (I was not aware of this. yep, it's true. it was a movie)

oh, and did you know the Blackhawks' Antti Niemi has the same birthday (Aug. 29) as me? you do now, because I found it out recently and will post it many more times to come.

some games are "a little chippy"...

and some are an absolute fucking bloodbath. and I'm not even counting the horrific puck-to-the-face injury in this one...I mean the 107 penalty minutes (63 to Chicago) racked up in tonight's Blackhawks @ Blues (more on this later):

 

re: the above list of fighters? for some reason "one of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong" is in my head...

I already had a ticket to the next Hawks-Blues game. I'm looking forward to it...and a little scared.

this post has too much sugar & not enough Team Canada

so it's less than 10 hours until Team Canada is announced, and I'm not gonna bet on whether both Keith and Seabrook will make the team. but I'll bet dollars to donuts that of everyone reading this blog, I'm the only one who had dinner last night at a (soon-to-be-closing, alas. or relocating) 24-hour diner, in a booth where the waitress (on her last day today) told us a (her words) crack whore had given birth, at 6 a.m., one morning. (also I'll bet on "dollars to donuts" and "crack whore" not being used in the same sentence before.)

um, anyway, I listened to the Blackhawks @ Stars game on WGN radio on the way home, and 7 goals had been scored by the time I got to my computer and found the game online, including two quick Stars goals at the top of the 2nd while the bus went the last couple blocks to my place. Hawks lose 5-4, and are 0-2 with the Stars this season. but at least they got TWO power play goals in one game, and Fraser got his first goal of the season (first scored since April 1).

note: one of the WGN guys said in the post-game discussion of how fans feel about Hawks being on Olympic teams, are they "concerned this could take away the possibility that the Hawks could hoist the Cup for the first time in 61 years." ouch! yes, Hawks fans have "61" in their heads but at least the non-winning streak hasn't been THAT long...

remember the Chicago Tribune Toews piece I linked to a few posts ago? well, seeing it on paper was even better--he was the cover of the Sunday section (which used to be the glossy-covered weekly magazine in the Trib. decline of newspapers, etc. etc.). here's what fit on my scanner...

remember the Martin Brodeur recipe page I posted last week? well, I actually made the "traditional fudge from Quebec," but either the recipe's not quite right or (more likely) I messed up the ice-water step because I've never made candy before. so it ended up not as fudge but a zillion-calorie pan of caramel goo. which is unbelievably good over vanilla ice cream. somehow this counts as preparing myself for the New Year's Eve Devils @ Hawks game I'll be attending...

remember the PNC Park, Stanley Cup, etc. in gingerbread form I posted from my Pittsburgh trip? (yeah, still haven't posted my December game recaps/photos...) I expanded it into this this photoblog that also includes gingerbread McDonald's, Titanic, trolleys, Obama (and stayed up so late working on it I didn't post at all here Monday). 

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if all the sappy holiday-time stuff is past...well, it's time for some Canadian-on-Canadian violence again! this Canucks @ Flames game 12/27 has the highest-rated-on-hockeyfights.com fights of any of the post-Christmas games. this fight went on for a full minute, and Tanner Glass received a game misconduct for not having his jersey tied down.

I'll just have to link to it because when I embedded it in this post, a version showed up that plays automatically--arrgh, never happened with anything I've posted from there before. a still from Glass vs. Brandon Prust:

re: Team Canada again. you might enjoy Fallen Leafs' "My Team Canada of Man-Crushes". I know I did.

Stone vs. Stoner: name-wise, the NHL FOTY

I know, I know, another fight? but it involves the Minnesota Wild, and it doesn't get more Christmas-y than the Wild's uniforms, does it? (too bad they have to wear them all the time.) and this is hardly more violent than trying to visit the mall today, isn't it?

NHL players only get a few days off around Christmas...they were working right up through Dec. 23, doing impressive things: the Hawks' Antti Niemi got his 4th shutout of the season, and the Coyotes' Ilya Bryzgalov got his 5th to lead the league. Malkin got a hat trick for the Penguins' 8-2 win over the Senators. Bruins scored 3 goals in 68 seconds (damn, wish I'd seen that, but I was out watching the Hawks game with people) and eventually beat Atlanta 6-4. and of course, there were fights. I had to post this because it's Ryan Stone (Oilers) vs. Clayton Stoner (Wild), and it's worth posting for those names alone. (the two also fought in the AHL.) to borrow a joke from the hockeyfights.com comments, the win, and a big bag of Cheetos, goes to Stoner:

30 years ago today...

I didn't realize it was the anniversary of one of the NHL's most notorious episodes till I saw this posted on a couple other blogs. I know it's the season of peace on earth, goodwill to all and whatnot, but I'd be remiss in not posting this bit of Bruins history. I'll try to go a few posts without any fights...more recipes, perhaps?

from The New York Times piece "30 Years Later, Memories of Garden's Shoe Brawl," subtitled Over the Glass and Into Hockey Lore:  "Thirty years ago, on Dec. 23, 1979, Bruins defenseman Mike Milbury whacked John Kaptain, a Rangers fan from New Jersey, with a shoe during a bizarre altercation in which all but one Bruins player went over the glass and into the stands at Madison Square Garden. The incident, after a 4-3 Bruins victory, resulted in three players being suspended, lawsuits and the installation of higher glass in the arena." (I first saw this linked at Greatest Hockey Legends, where a commenter quipped [because the article refers to the "late" fan] "I can't believe Milbury only got suspended 6 games for killing that guy.")

this is the five and a half-minute version, but you can find shorter clips...plus related videos of other hockey line brawls and incidents with fans, if you'd like an alternative to all the sentimental holiday viewing:



the Times also notes, "Bruins fans, in particular, still relish the incident."

Chi-Town Shooters vs. linesmen: uh, wow.

so here's an odd item found at Avalanche blog Jerseys and Hockey Love, who got the story from HockeyRefs.com. I haven't seen this anywhere else yet. HockeyRefs.com describes what happens in this Chi-Town Shooters @ Evansville IceMen game:  
"At the end of the second period, Chi-Town defensemen Clay Lewis received a match penalty for slashing, a match penalty for spearing and a game misconduct for Category I Abuse of an Official for an on-ice incident where Lewis threw off his gloves specifically to fight a linesmen...pulled the linesmen's jersey over his helmet, and threw off his helmet before an IceMen player intervened."

the gloves are dropped around 0:50 here:



more about it: "...unofficial reports indicate that Lewis was playing his first game with the Chi-Town Shooters...This is the second serious on-ice incident involving abuse of an official this season for the All American Hockey League. Earlier this season Chi-Town Shooters forward Krystjan Jefkins was suspended for 20 games for a similar Category I offense, which involved Jenkins throwing five punches at a linesmen."

wow, TWO incidents with the same team? about all I know of the Chi-Town Shooters is that they're actually in Dyer, Indiana, closer to Gary, IN than to Chicago. and their website says they're a "Proud Affiliate of the Dayton Gems" (a level or two below the Toledo Walleye, I'm guessing!) and I guess they have anger management issues. the sites who posted this are clearly disapproving, but when I told a hockey fan friend (who hadn't seen the video) he laughed and said "that's awesome" more than once. I have that horrified/amused reaction that I have to a lot of unusual sports incidents. but I do think that although on-ice officials should expect to be heckled, and know they run the risk of a player accidentally knocking into them, it's reasonable to expect to not be punched at your job (it's reasonable to expect this of most jobs).

I'll let you know if there's any more mayhem from this team...

vintage obsession

a little more history, before I get back to posting about amazing recent Blackhawks games (I'm still working on even getting the photos uploaded onto my computer!) and debuting a couple new (and silly) "ongoing series."

I don't think I've explained why I have a Toronto Maple Leafs section in the blogroll. I like the idea of having one Canadian team I'm following (if not entirely cheering on, since, well, duh, they're in the same division as the Bruins), and they have some people I really like in their blogosphere, so...that's good enough. I've added Vintage Leaf Memories to the blogroll--mostly history, with some current news/opinions. I especially want to note the recent piece on The "Original Twelve", detailing the next six teams added during NHL expansion. this site is not to be confused with Vintage Leafs, another good one (all images, not much text).

okay, I already posted a fight video this week, and I really only meant to post ones I saw in person, in game recaps, but this showed up tonight and I couldn't resist. North Stars! I've mentioned the Whalers and North Stars multiple times on this blog and there are probably current NHL teams I haven't mentioned once (Florida Panthers, perhaps?). I am not losing sleep over this.

I hope my east coast readers are okay, I know there's been quite a snowstorm out there. uh, is it headed west?

bloglove, mistakes, stuff I'm too lazy to come up with a decent title for

before I post today's Boston vs Chicago countdown, a roundup. lots of good stuff here.

Jeff of Blackhawk Up got to do the Five Reasons [He] Loves Hockey at Puck Daddy. I posted a defensive comment directed at another commenter about "bandwagon" accusations and, as happens anytime I post anything remotely personal and/or political and/or angry on the Internet (including some recent posts here...), I got all wussy about seeing if anyone responded (never sure what's worse, being attacked or being ignored) so I didn't check back.

Kukla's Korner asked today about Your Favorite Hockey Related Websites/Blogs and invited readers to promote their own blogs, too, so of course I did. I named a bunch, but not any specific Blackhawks blogs because I'm too petty and vindictive that only one is blogrolling me so far I didn't want to play favorites. oh, and I'm wracked with guilt about those of you I didn't mention there, don't worry...I mentioned that Third String Goalie posts so much good stuff it's hard not to link every day. look, I'm linking today, because Dec. 15 is the anniversary of the first game played at the old Chicago Stadium (I'm ashamed of not knowing that already) and he's got a nice piece up, vintage postcard and all.

Oklahoma City might be getting an AHL team next year. I'd noticed the Anaheim Ducks don't have an AHL affiliate this year...but OKC's team would take over the Oilers affiliation. I'm confused already.

watched the Leafs-Caps game online Sat. night. I actually predicted (to myself) they'd beat the Capitals last time (they did, 2-1), but seeing them come from losing 2-0 going into the second period to win 6-3 was pretty impressive. the 29th-place team beat the 1st-place team (and the Leafs are up to 27th now!). I read the NHL.com recap and saw...something not quite right:

heh. I think you can get your portrait taken for a few dollars at Walgreens, if you need a new one. I left the feed on and saw Canadian nightly news for the first time! there were two stories about hockey before they got to the sports results. wow, that country should get another NHL team or something.

some town where there's a battle over allowing pond hockey, and later a story about concussions in youth hockey

not to detract from a serious story, but: pink hair = awesome. I left it on and the Caps-Leafs game was rerun (a shorter, intermission-less version) afterwards; I didn't even know they did that.

NHL.com posts so much material and has to do much of it so quickly, that I'm not bashing them for making the occasional mistake. but I will point them out!

that word made me think "fiesta" first, then "fiery," but I realized they meant "feisty" (which my dictionary defines as "lively or flamboyant in manner or appearance." flamboyant? okay, they probably meant the second definition, "spirited").

tonight I saw Scott Hartnell, The Guy In the NHL Who's Actually Uglier Than Brent Sopel, and the rest of the Flyers play the Penguins. there were 2 goals and 3 fights within barely the first 6 minutes of play! (someone Twittered to the effect: "hey Flyers, 1975 called, they want their style of hockey back") Pens won 6-1. Flyers were in Boston last night, and as noted, my friend Dan attended as his first Bruins game this season. I'd hoped to watch it all online because he had a good seat and I could have maybe got a screenshot of him, but the feed (it was NESN! yes, #getjackedwardsontwitter!) vanished after the first few minutes and I didn't find one again until the painful third period. (then it ended before the NESN Blackhawks preview).

 

he saw the Bruins lose, but he did get to see the kids' hockey during intermission result in a fight (there were no fights in the actual game). and he'd seen the same thing happen (but with younger kids) during a Providence Bruins game. I love New England! I mean, of course it's awful in some ways...but funny in others. not sure if video has turned up (and I wouldn't feel okay posting it if it did), but it's worth noting.

so here's a New England fight that turned up on hockeyfights.com this week, a brief Whalers-Bruins fight from 1992. I know very little about these teams circa that era, but I did like the old jerseys, the utter indifference of the fans in the front row seats, and the nugget of wisdom at the end: