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NHL Photo of the Day

Feb 6

Posted by EB in NHL Photo of the Day | 1 Comment

Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images

Losing back-to-back games over the weekend, the Philadelphia Flyers are in a temporary state of free-falling. This is largely do in part by the combination of struggling net-minders.

Seen here, Sergei Bobrovsky passes while being replaced by Ilya Bryzgalov after letting 6 goals in midway through the second period against the surging New Jersey Devils Saturday night. The loss was followed up by another one against the New York Rangers Sunday night. Together, the two goalies allowed 10 goals on 68 shots faced for a .853 save percentage.

Sure, the Flyers are still sitting comfortable within the Eastern Conference standings, currently in 4th place, but going 4-4-2 in their last 10 games needs to come to an end or other suitors will gladly knock them out of playoff contention.

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New York Rangers trade Erik Christensen to Minnesota Wild

Feb 3

Posted by Chris in News | No Comments

The New York Rangers traded forward Erik Christensen and a conditional 7th round draft pick in 2013 to the Minnesota Wild for forward Casey Wellman, who will be immediately assigned to the minors.

The move was announced around noon by the Rangers via their official Facebook page.

Christensen, a depth forward, will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season barring a contract extension with the Minnesota Wild. He had five points in only 20 games with the Rangers this season.

This will be Christensen’s fifth team in his short NHL career, with previous stops in Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Anaheim and most recently with the Rangers. His most productive season came in 2006-07 when he split time between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins of the AHL. Christensen posted 18 goals and added 15 assists for 33 points in 61 games with the Penguins that season. He contributed 11 goals and 16 assists for the Rangers last season in 63 games.

The move could be the first of many for both teams, as the Rangers are rumored to be looking to add offensive depth to their roster before the trade deadline. This could be tricky as the Rangers only have a little bit of wiggle room with roughly $1 million in available cap space. Christensen’s contract frees up another $925,000, and more moves could be on the way to help free up space.

While not a huge move, Chistensen gives Minnesota some depth and could be a signal that the Wild, who are currently clinging to the 8th and final playoff seed in the Western Conference, could be buyers at the trade deadline as they look to secure a playoff berth. There have been suggestions that the Wild could look to deal defenseman Marek Zidlicky before the trade deadline as well.

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NHL Photo of the Day

Jan 25

Posted by EB in Media, News, NHL Photo of the Day | No Comments

Christopher Pasatieri/Getty Images

Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers picked up his 5th shutout of the season with a 3 – 0 win over the Winnipeg Jets. The Rangers are on top of the Eastern Conference with 66 points and 3 points up in the Atlantic Conference. Playoff bound indeed, but can Head Coach John Tortorella get pass the first round? In his years with the Rangers, Tortorella has missed the playoffs once with the other two years being knocked out by the Washington Capitals.

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Fantasy Friday: Goalie Stats

Jan 6

Posted by Chris in Fantasy | No Comments

Today we are going to forgo The Hot List (although we still recommend looking into Daniel Alfredsson if you haven’t already) and will instead focus on more team-oriented stats and how they relate to goalies. Goalie stats are some of the hardest to predict in Fantasy Hockey. Now, the specifics may change from league to league, but overall goalies are usually rewarded for wins and punished for allowing goals. By looking at some of the overall team stats, managers may be able to better formulate a plan of attack and predict how their goalie may do on any given night.

Most leagues will punish goals allowed in some capacity. If you’re league does, then you may want to know which teams are more likely to score on any given night.

Eight teams in the league currently score, on average, three or more goals per game. If you’re goalie is facing one of those teams, you can pretty much expect at least three goals to slip through. Those eight teams are:

Boston (3.65)

Philadelphia (3.42)

Detroit (3.26)

Vancouver (3.24)

Chicago (3.20)

Toronto (3.15)

Pittsburgh (3.10)

Ottawa (3.0)

Leagues will also reward or punish goalies based on the number of shots faced. This may be a simple ‘shots faced’ stat, or represent itself in the form of save percentage or goals against average. These five teams lead the league in shots per game:

San Jose (34.8)

Pittsburgh (33.7)

Detroit (33.1)

Chicago (32.7)

Boston (32.5)

You’ll notice that three of the teams on the shots per game list are also on the goals scored per game list. Before starting your goalie against any of those teams, you may want to determine if you will gain more points by facing more shots or lose more points by letting in more goals.

One of the most popular goalie stats in Fantasy Hockey is wins. And, depending on how your league’s point system is set up, goalie wins can make or break your week in head-to-head matchups. So it’s important to know who your goalie is most likely to beat. These next five teams have the most losses in the NHL:

Columbus (24)

Anaheim (22)

Edmonton (21)

Carolina (21)

Calgary (19)

On the other side, these five teams lead the league in wins:

Boston (26)

NY Rangers (25)

Vancouver (25)

Detroit (25)

Chicago (24)

Taking all of these stats into consideration, the four teams that you will likely want to avoid playing your goalie against are the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawk, Vancouver Canucks and Detroit Red Wings. Not only are they likely to beat you, but they are likely to score three or more goals on you as well.

All of these stats are available on NHL.com and can be useful tools when trying to decide whether to play your goalie against a given opponent. Goalie stats are some of the toughest to predict, but having knowledge of these stats can help you determine the best course of action when it comes to goalie plays.

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Detroit Red Wings should host 2013 NHL Winter Classic

Jan 4

Posted by Chris in Soap Box | 3 Comments

This year’s Winter Classic event matched up two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference and again raised the expectations of this annual event. The game featured strong play on both fronts, a come-from-behind victory by the New York Rangers and a nail-biting penalty shot save in the waning seconds of the game by Rangers goalie Henrik Lundquist to preserve the victory. It had all of the makings of a successful Winter Classic. So where does the NHL go from here?

To Detroit.

In five Winter Classic games, the Western Conference has only hosted one. That came in 2009 when the Detroit Red Wings bested the Chicago Blackhawks 6-4 at Wrigley Field. The other four games have all been intra-conference matchups with Eastern Conference teams. Logically, the NHL and NBC should go back West. And Detroit would be the perfect spot to do it.

Cold, gray, and one of the most successful NHL franchises of the past two decades, Detroit would be the perfect setting for the next NHL Winter Classic. Plus, the NHL would have their pick of venues for the annual contest. If they wanted to stay within the confines of the city, Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers, would be a perfect place to set up shop. However, if the NHL really wanted to go big and continue to raise the stakes, they would move west just down the freeway and take the game to Michigan Stadium where they could cram in more than 100,000 spectators while playing the game on one of the most storied football fields in college football history.

So now you have the Detroit Red Wings involved, one of the most popular NHL franchises in recent history, along with one of the biggest venues in the nation. So who does the NHL choose to bring in as an opponent for this event? While the NHL certainly has their pick of the litter, two teams immediately come to mind: San Jose and Toronto.

The Sharks have been a thorn in the side of the Red Wings for several seasons now. The teams have met in the playoffs in each of the past two seasons and both times the Sharks defeated the Wings. Both teams are highly skilled, puck-possession teams with big name talent on their rosters. Plus, finally bringing in a West-coast team could garner the game more attention from West coast fans that have thus far had no reason to really tune into the game.

The other opponent could be the Toronto Maple Leafs and, all things considered, this is the most likely. Not only would a Toronto-Detroit matchup bring together two Original Six teams for one of the biggest NHL events of the year, but it would also finally get a Canadian team involved in the matchup. Plus, Toronto is a four-hour drive to Detroit and tons of fans would be willing to make the trek. The arena would easily be just as many Maple Leafs fans as Red Wings fans.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman refuses to tip his hand as to whom the next host city and opponent could be, but what he has said might indicate that Detroit could be in the running for the game.

“My guess is it will be played in a place we have not been before,” Bettman said. “So, therefore, in the U.S., you’ve eliminated five locations. You can play with the other 25, play with geography and understand that temperature is a factor…You can eliminate some of the warmer climates. We are not probably going to go back to where we have been.”

That statement also leaves Minnesota, Winnipeg, Toronto, Columbus, New Jersey and several other cities in the running for the game as well. But none of those teams would be as big of a draw as the Red Wings, and none of those host cities could offer a location like The Big House where they could cram in more than 100,000 spectators – something that even Leafs forward Nazem Kadri wants to be a part of.

I think at the Michigan stadium — what does it hold, like 100,000-plus?” said Kadri. “That would be a ridiculous game to be a part of. It would be a dream come true.”

What do you think? Which matchups do you most want to see for next year’s NHL Winter Classic?

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Winter Classic Recap

Jan 3

Posted by Eddie in News | No Comments

Yesterday was the fifth incarnation of the NHL Winter Classic. And this could have been one of the best between the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers. Entering the game, both teams were separated by two points in the Eastern conference. The league could not have asked for a better pairing between rival teams that are also among the best in the league. Throw in the drama of the HBO 24/7 series for the second time and you have the makings for what was a great game.

Entering the game was the questionable goal by Flyers bench boss Peter Laviolette to start Sergei Bobrovsky instead of Ilya Bryzgalov. While both players are solid in their own right, it was Bryzgalov who played the most entering the contest.

The players and teams did not disappoint the 46,967 who attended the game. Most of the crowd was pro-Philadelphia and they were loud and rowdy near the midway point of the game when the first goal of the game was scored by Brayden Schenn when he found the back of the net off a rebound from Matt Carle. Schenn’s first career NHL goal came at 12:26 of the middle period. The Flyers soon took a multi-goal advantage 1:55 later when Claude Giroux scored his 18th goal of the reason. He tied Henrik Sedin for the NHL lead with the lamplighter and was assisted by Scott Hartnell and Max Talbot.

The lead didn’t last long as the Rangers were able to storm back with wrist shot goals from Mike Rupp. Rupp wishes every game was played outdoors as he scored twice in the annual NHL showcase and one time this season coming into the game. The first goal Rupp scored came when he took a pass from Brandon Prust near the player benches, skated into the zone fired a shot from between the circles that beat Bobrovsky with 5:09 to play in the period.

Rupp was gutsy to celebrate with a salute after the goal- something opponent Jaromir Jagr has done throughout his career as well as this season. Jagr didn’t see much ice time in the Winter Classic for unexplained reasons. In the first two periods he played two shifts for a total of 68 seconds.

The second goal occurred when Rupp took a wrist shot near the goal line and was able to sneak it between the hip of Bobrovsky and the goal post. The goal that tied the game came at 2:41 of the third period.

The goal that turned out to be the game winner was scored by Brad Richards at 5:21 of the third period. Happened to be at the right place at the right time, Bobrovsky made the mistake of directing a Brandon Dubinsky rebound into the slot as a streaking Richards was approaching the net. Also assisting on the goal was Ryan Callahan.

The biggest save of the match came in the final minute when Henrik Lundqvist turned away a Danny Briere penalty shot with 19 seconds left. The penalty shot came when a Rangers player appeared to cover the puck inside the goal crease with his hand. The save by Lundqvist was his 33rd of the game. Bobrovsky made 30 saves in the losing effort.

The win by the Rangers gives the away team a 4-1 record in the Winter Classic. Ironically, the only home team to win was the Boston Bruins in 2010. They defeated the Philadelphia Flyers at Fenway Park.

Check out the finale of 24/7: Flyers- Rangers Wednesday night at 10:00 p.m. EST on HBO.

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HBO 24/7: Rangers- Flyers Episode 3 Recap

Jan 1

Posted by Eddie in Media | No Comments

With the Winter Classic being a couple days away, things are starting to heat up between the teams competing in the annual showcase of the National Hockey League. The buildup to the game is ever increasing, but before the teams meet at Citizens Bank Ballpark Monday afternoon, the two teams met at Madison Square Garden in this episode.

I don’t know if the NHL is done this on purpose with the scheduling, but having the teams meet at the other teams barn prior to the Winter Classic is a genius move. Similar to last year when the Penguins and  Capitals met at Verizon Center, the game between the Flyers and Rangers brought a lot of intensity and is able to set the table for the Winter Classic.

But before we recap the game, let’s hit on what happened in the episode.

The Rangers did some holiday-related team activities. We got to see the team, as well as children and WAGs, skate at Bryant Park. We got to see the return of Landon Girardi take his first steps on ice. He had prettier looking skates as a 2-year-old than I ever had. In addition to his first time on the ice, the camera pans over to other kids before he was able to play 3-post with his one-timer that we saw in Episode 2.

The greatest moment so far that didn’t involve Ilya Bryzgalov was the Rangers’ team Christmas party. In typical form, the attire of the night was ugly sweater. Hockey players do know how to throw a theme party better than just about any athlete out there. Feel free to watch the video, courtesy of Yahoo!’s Puck Daddy blog. Pause it at 1:26 and check out Michael Del Zotto’s reindeer sweater. I can’t describe it at family-friendly Hockey World Blog,  but to quote a fellow Ranger “Twice the fun for Rudolph.”

There was also a cool moment when Marian Gaborik went to buy a Christmas tree not far from his home in Tribeca. He looks about as lost and confused as us regular Joe’s when it comes to buying a natural tree.

Over on the Flyers side of things, they are in the middle of a road trip to the middle part of the country. The game was at Colorado while the second was at Dallas. The Dallas game is where we saw Claude Giroux return after a concussion suffered earlier in the series. While Giroux is back on the ice, Sean Couturier isn’t yet. Couturier took a puck to the ear in a December 17 game. He told the HBO camera crew that he passed all the concussion tests but doesn’t have hearing back in one of his ears yet. That’s very scary because you still need your hearing after you’re done playing hockey.

Onto the moment we have been waiting for all night. Flyers vs. Rangers at The Garden. As usual between rival teams, a lot of hitting. A lot of chirping (including from recent AHL-call up Tom Sestito chirping the Rangers bench) and a couple fights. The hockey geek moment of the night was another visit to the NHL War Room in Toronto, where Mike Murphy watches games on several screens every other hockey fan envies. He got a call from MSG, watches tape and reviews it with the officials. Standard procedure with the calls he receives every night. The Rangers go on to win the game 4-2 and New Yorkers make their feeling towards the Flyers known by chanting “FLYERS SUCK!”.

This week’s Top Stars:

1. Scott Hartnell inviting Claude Giroux and others to his condo for Christmas. He takes things into his own hands and attempts to operate a camera (ugh) and has a several coin-op games including Buck Hunter.

2. The Flyers taking the Amtrak back to Philadelphia from New York. You don’t see many teams traveling by any other way other than charter flight. It would be pretty cool to stand at the train station and all of a sudden you see Bryzgalov, Giroux, and Wayne Simmonds.

3. Brad Richards for putting the kibosh on Sestito and his chirping when he said “One day in the NHL for you. Fantasy camp for you.”

Check out the finale of 24/7 Wednesday night at 10:00 p.m. EST on HBO.

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Winter Classic Hockey Sticks

Dec 30

Posted by EB in Gear, News | 6 Comments

Bauer recently released photos of the Winter Classic hockey sticks for both the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers. The two teams will square off against one another Monday, January 2nd at 1:00 PM Eastern time. In the 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic, the two teams will play outdoors, this years venue is Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park. The park is home to the Philadelphia Phillies Major League Baseball team.

But enough chit chat about the game, the picture of the sticks are below. Not certain if these will become available to the public or possibly a special purchase for only a select period of time, but take a look and let us know what you think.

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HBO 24/7: Rangers- Flyers Episode 2 Recap

Dec 27

Posted by Eddie in Media | No Comments

The folks at HBO doesn’t disappoint when it comes to holding nothing back. This episode was more teary-eyed than the first. The first laid down the foundation of the players and storylines to watch. Episode two took you in a little deeper as it featured several relationships. Some were player-kids, player-player, and a special one between bench boss John Tortorella and a fan.

The first highlight was at the beginning when Dan Girardi was playing with his son Landon. His 18-month-old son was getting fed one-timers and taking shots on a play goal. Dan sure is getting his son an early start in hockey. At such a young age, he has a better shot than most adults I play hockey with today. By the time he reaches 5, he’ll be the kid on every mite youth team that can skate through everyone else and score 3-4 goals per game. Count on it.

Keeping in line with the Rangers, we got to see goalie Henrik Lundqvist and some of his activities off the ice. Some do modeling like Sean Avery, others spend time with their wife and children or do community work. Hanky on the other hand, likes to play music. We got to see him in a jam session with tennis legend John McEnroe. Lundqvist later said he is preparing for a charity concert with McEnroe in February. He didn’t look too bad in my opinion.

With the Flyers, there was so sophomore slump from goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. His teammates ragged on him when they saw his quotes and performance last week. They were so in awe of him, no one wanted to sit next to him at the breakfast table the morning of a game. His quotes this week included:

  • About his defensemen and if they are crazier than goalies when it comes to blocking shots: “They doesn’t have the goalie gear, but they have to block the shot. So who is more crazy, me or the defensemen? Who is more weird?”
  • On his dog: ”My husky, basically, she’s a hot girl, man.”

Living on Detroit and seeing a fair share of Russian players wearing the winged wheel, he reminds me a lot of Pavel Datsuyk. With both players, you can’t understand 70% of what comes out of their mouth, but the other 30% is usually hilarious.

Fasting forward, we got to see one of the epic rants of this season of 24/7 between both bench bosses. During a game against St. Louis where they didn’t have much of a chance to begin with, Torts went on an intermission tirade that was pretty good in terms of the amount of F-Bombs that were dropped. But they were nothing compared to Bruce Boudreau’s rant during a game last year.

On the other side, Peter Laviolette knows what it feels like to be newly-hired Montreal coach Randy Cunneyworth: You don’t get a fair shake in Montreal if you don’t speak French. The Flyers were on the bad side of a couple of bad calls and ultimately lost the game because of a power-play goal by the Habs. Lavs lashed at the officials not only during the game but afterward, but it fell on deaf ears. During my live chat, I read a tweet from Yahoo! Sports’ Greg Wyshynski in response to Laviolette and he said it best “[He] would get the calls in Montreal if he wasn’t a unilingual anglophone.”

I would not be surprised if Lavs got plenty of emails from other coaches in the league applauding him for standing up against the perceived French bias. The rant can be viewed here. Tell me Jagr wasn’t victim of Montreal-based officiating.

The moment only long-time hockey fans would get: A hotel room moment with Harry Zolnierczyk and Zac Rinaldo Getting awestruck by playing alongside Jaromir Jagr, someone they used to play as or against in NHL video games as a kid.

This week’s Top Stars:

1. Tortorella and his relationship with disabled fan Liam. He’s 10-years-old and has Cerebral Palsy. He’s a huge Rangers fan, considering his bedroom is decked out in blue and red. He has met Torts and several players many times and even stayed up to watch their last second victory over Phoenix. What a dedicated fan.

*Honorable Mention* to the HBO editing crew for showing Torts as an aggressive, profane coach one minute and the next have him turn as soft as a pillow when talking about Liam.

2. Landon Girardi. Considering the World Junior Championships are going on, look for him to represent Canada in 2017-2018 with the type of stickhandling and shooting ability he has at 18 months.

3. Bryzgalov. He had another solid performance of zingers and one-liners.

Check out 24/7 Wednesday nights at 10:00 p.m. EST on HBO.

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HBO 24/7: Flyers/Rangers streaming on NHL.com

Dec 18

Posted by Chris in Media | No Comments

For those of you who don’t have HBO and missed out on the inaugural episode of this season’s HBO 24/7: Flyers/Rangers, the very first episode is now streaming from NHL.com in its entirety. In addition, YouTube has the entire episode posted in four separate clips. You can watch Part 1 of episode one from YouTube below:

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