As rumored last week, Chicago Blackhawks captain and 2010 Conn Smythe Award winner Jonathan Toews will be the main cover athlete of EA Sports NHL 11. He joins teammate Patrick Kane, who was on the cover of NHL 10. Other parts of the world will have NHL superstars on the cover, with Henrik and Daniel Sedin on Swedish versions of the game. New York Islanders star Mark Streit will appear on games sold in Switzerland.
WorldWide NHL 11 cover athlete Jonathan Toews
Jun 17
Goaltender Jaroslav Halak, a key component of the Montreal Canadiens run to the Eastern Conference Finals this past season, has been dealt to the St. Louis Blues according to a report by RDS.
ESPN is reporting that the Habs will receive forward Lars Eller and Ian Schultz. Eller was a first-round pick of St. Louis in 2007 and Schultz was a 2008 third-round pick. Eller appeared in seven games with the big club as he spent the rest of the season with Peoria of the AHL. Schultz played his third junior season in 2009-10 with Calgary of the Western Hockey League.
For the past two seasons, Halak split time between the pipes with Carey Price, but Halak’s game seemed to improve after his run with Slovakia in the Vancouver Olympics. He finished with a 26-13-5 regular-season record, a 2.40 goals-against average and .924 save percentage. In the playoffs, Halak had a 2.55 GAA and .923 save percentage in 18 games.
This is a risky move for St. Louis, as Halak becomes a restricted free-agent on July 1 and is eligible for salary arbitration. In two seasons, he becomes a unrestricted free-agent. This is the second goalie they acquired in consecutive summers. They acquired Ty Conklin from Detroit last off season, and Chris Mason, who started 61 games last season. Mason does enter this summer as a unrestricted free-agent, and with his $3 Million salary and Halak’s $800,000 salary from last season, they will let Mason walk and go into next season with a Halak-Conklin duo in net.
Heavyweight enforcer George Laraque will no longer be donning the Montreal Canadien jersey. The Canadiens announced that they will buy out the remaining $1 million over a two year period of time.
The woes of the enforcer were a mixture of lack of production on the ice and being deemed a “distraction” to the team. A sad story really, as Laraque a Haitian, has been providing relief to Haiti after the massive earthquake, a tragedy where it is estimated close to a 150,000 people have perished. The relief effort did take him away from the sport of hockey, and as sad as it may be, the Canadiens still have a business to run.
Laraque is a 33 year old heavyweight enforcer, where he may land is unknown, if he does land anywhere else. Age and diminishing talent will be a factor for any team if they decide to sign him, especially in a day and age where enforcers are becoming more extinct.
Jun 15
EA has released its first trailer for the upcoming NHL ’11 game. No cover athlete has been announced yet, however, some leaked images from an EA website suggest Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Toews will appear on the cover. Chicago fans will surely be happy with this decision, but the rest of the hockey world will ponder why the cover athlete comes from the Chicago Blackhawks in two consecutive releases. Anyway, check out the new trailer below.
For the past several seasons, the Chicago Blackhawks have sort of been a little brother to the Detroit Red Wings. You know, the brother who you can still put your palm on his forehead and keep him at arms length while he swings wildly and throws loose punches in your direction. Yeah, that kind of brother. And while the Blackhawks have made several key additions over the years and improved their squad season after season, they still couldn’t break out from behind the shadow of the Detroit Red Wings. That all changed earlier this week when the Blackhawks hoisted the Stanley Cup as the best team in the NHL. In celebration for their cup win, Chicago fans proceeded to pull an extremely classy move and chant “Detroit sucks” at a celebration rally in the streets of Chicago. The video can be seen below:
I’ll be the first to admit that Chicago was the best team in the NHL this season and they were definitely the best team in the Stanley Cup Finals. They deserved to win the Stanley Cup. That being said, I’m not exactly sure why the Chicago fans would choose to acknowledge Detroit at that given moment instead of taking the opportunity to cheer for and support their own team that just won the Stanley Cup. It always boggles my mind when fans would choose to acknowledge a bitter rival or another franchise in any negative fashion when they could instead be cheering on and celebrating their own victory. Regardless, congrats to Chicago for their victory. They earned it.
Jun 12
Update: The CCM U+ CL skates are now available for pre-order from Ice Warehouse. They’ll be available for $599.99 and will begin shipping October 11th.
After a few releases with the same looking graphics, CCM is finally going to switch it up with their upcoming skate release. We’ve got a sneak peak below at the brand new CCM U+ CL ice hockey skates. Surprisingly, this shot has come out before any information on the 2011 roller line which gets released this fall. Regardless, I’m excited for new CCM skates as they fit my foot perfectly. Plus, this new skate looks amazing.
CCM U+ CL Ice Hockey Skates
After an exciting end to the 2009-10 NHL season, puck heads are already preparing themselves for next season. Vegas is even getting in on the action, releasing their odds to win the Stanley Cup in 2011. The Chicago Blackhawks are currently leading the way with 11/2 odds at clinching back-to-back titles. Coming in at number two are the Pittsburgh Penguins at 6/1. The 2010 President’s Trophy winning Washington Capitals hold strong at number three with 13/2 odds. Rounding out the top five are the playoff struggling Sharks at 9/1 and the Red Wings, looking to rebound after an injury filled campaign, at 12/1.
The Chicago Blackhawks are favorites to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions in 2011
Check out the complete list below to see what chances your favorite team has to raise the Stanley Cup next season.
Anaheim Ducks 40/1
Atlanta Thrashers 50/1
Boston Bruins 20/1
Buffalo Sabres 18/1
Calgary Flames 25/1
Carolina Hurricanes 50/1
Chicago Blackhawks 11/2
Colorado Avalanche 30/1
Columbus Blue Jackets 40/1
Dallas Stars 40/1
Detroit Red Wings 12/1
Edmonton Oilers 75/1
Florida Panthers 50/1
Los Angeles Kings 25/1
Minnesota Wild 40/1
Montreal Canadiens 30/1
Nashville Predators 28/1
New Jersey Devils 20/1
New York Islanders 75/1
New York Rangers 28/1
Ottawa Senators 22/1
Philadelphia Flyers 15/1
Phoenix Coyotes 25/1
Pittsburgh Penguins 6/1
San Jose Sharks 9/1
St. Louis Blues 45/1
Tampa Bay Lightning 60/1
Toronto Maple Leafs 75/1
Vancouver Canucks 15/1
Washington Capitals 13/2
It appears as if unrestricted free agent Todd Bertuzzi may opt to test the open market to see if any more lucrative offers come along than the two-year deal that the Red Wings offered that is most likely worth around the $1.5 million per season that Bertuzzi made this past year.
Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland appeared on the “NHL Live” radio program where he touched upon several topics including his ongoing negotiations with Bertuzzi and his agent Pat Morris.
“We have interest in him coming back,” Holland said of Bertuzzi. “I think he’s interested in coming back. But it’s a cap world. We only have so much to offer.”
Prior to this past season, Bertuzzi had spent time in a Wings uniform once before after he was acquired from Florida at the trade deadline in 2007. When the season ended, indications were that Bertuzzi was interested in staying and that the Wings were interested in keeping him. However, Bertuzzi left the organization during the free agency period to sign a two-year deal with the Anaheim Ducks for $8 million. Bertuzzi was later placed on waivers by the Ducks.
“We’ll continue to talk to him,” Holland said. “We’d like to have him back, but obviously, there’s gotta be a fit financially for the player and for us. Talks are ongoing. We’ll see where they go.”
In other news, reports are also circulating that the Ottawa Senators are looking to buy out the contract of forward Jonathan Cheechoo when the NHL buyout period begins next week. During that time, each team has a two week window in which they can buy out players for 2/3 of the value of their current salary to be paid over two-times the length of the agreed deal. Cheechoo is signed for $3.5 million for next season which would give the Senators a cap hit of $1,165,500 cap hit for the next 2 seasons.
Cheechoo came to Ottawa last summer as a part of the Dany Heatley trade that sent Heatley to San Jose in exchange for Cheechoo, forward Milan Michalek and a fifth round draft pick in the upcoming draft. The 29-year-old finished the season with five goals and nine assists for 14 points in 61 games with the Senators. Cheechoo also spent time with Ottawa’s AHL affiliate, the Binghamton Senators, where he totalled another 14 points in 25 games.
Cheechoo’s best performance came in 2005-2006 when he tallied 56 goals and 93 points in 82 games for the San Jose Sharks alongside center Joe Thornton. Since that season, Cheechoo’s numbers have steadily declined.
No word yet on where Cheechoo could end up, although several teams could look to sign Cheechoo later this summer to add depth to their lineup for a low cost. One interesting scenario would be if the Pittsburgh Penguins took a chance and signed Cheechoo for cheap this summer. Pittsburgh has taken chances on wingers in the past who fell to the late stages of free agency, such as Miroslav Satan, to experiment and see if they thrive alongside Sidney Crosby, who the Penguins are constantly trying to match with a suitable winger. Cheechoo had his best season alongside center Joe Thornton in San Jose and could possibly rejuvenate his career alongside Sidney Crosby.
Chicago Blackhawks are the Big Chiefs in the NHL, finally winning the Stanley Cup since 1961.
In what may be one of the most bizarre ending to a Stanley Cup finals, the Chicago Blackhawks have beaten the Philadelphia Flyers to become the Stanley Cup Champions.
The two teams faced off in an up and down game with the Philadelphia Flyers coming on strong in the third period and tying it with just under 4 minutes to go at three a piece. The momentum continued for the Flyers but Blackhawk’s goaltender Antti Niemi made acrobatic saves to push the game into overtime.
The two teams came out in overtime skating hard. With about 4 minutes into the period on a broken play, Blackhawk’s forward Patrick Kane deked around Flyer’s defender Kimmo Timonen to the outside and shot a low, poor angle shot to the five hole. The puck went in, but no one cheered, not because they were in Philly, but because no one knew what happened, no goal light, no referee’s hand pointing to the net, no nothing except for that of Patrick Kane who celebrated immediately, throwing his gloves off, jumping up and down all while skating to the other end of the ice to celebrate with his goaltender. The Blackhawk’s bench soon followed, all while the referees were going to Toronto to make sure it was indeed a goal, and that it was.
The Chicago Blackhawks have finally won another Cup, that of which has taken them since 49 years ago in 1961. Blackhawk’s captain and Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Towes hoisted it first, sharing the emotions of victory with all of his team. The rumors of the Marian Hossa curse will now subside, the doubts of such a young team having what it takes will extinguish, and all that will remain is a giant party in Chicago for a whole year until next season starts. And you know what? They very well could do it again next year.
Congratulations Chicago Blackhawks. And way to keep the Stanley Cup in the West.
After a 21-year NHL career with three teams, defenseman Rob Blake will retire from hockey with a press conference next week. A report coming from Comcast Sportsnet is saying the Stanley Cup champion, Olympic champion, and six-time all-star will to wait until after the Stanley Cup finals to formally announce his retirement out of respect to the Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks. CSN reported for their story that Blake and the Sharks declined to comment.
Blake won the Norris Trophy as NHL’s best defenseman in 1998 with his first stint with the Los Angeles Kings. He spent 12.5 seasons with the Kings, leaving in 2001 in a trade to Colorado and returning in 2006. He finished his career with San Jose when he signed as a free-agent in 2008. He was named captain of the Sharks earlier this season when the “C” was stripped from Patrick Marleau. He won his only Stanley Cup in 2001 with the Av’s as well as winning the Olympic gold medal with Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.
The 70th overall pick in the 1988 draft by Los Angeles played his college hockey at CCHA member Bowling Green, where he was All-America in 1990. His career-high’s for a single season were 84 games (1994 when they played 84 regular season games) 23 goals (1998), 48 assists (1994), 68 points (1994), and 152 PIM (1993).
Other facts about Blake:
Blake also scored 23 goals previously. He lit the lamp 23 times for Bowling Green in 1990, in 42 games.
Blake has also played in an NHL-record 55 different arenas throughout his career.
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