Speaking of polls, the HockeyFights.com 2007-08 Awards are now open for voting as well. Where else can you vote for “Fight of the Year“, “TKO/KO of the Year“, “Best Team Feud“, or “Best Punching Power“? All those official NHL Awards are for sissies!
The Isles are not very well represented here, in fact they’ve been nominated for “Least Enforcing Team“. But you will find the NYI/NYR Pre-season brawl, and Simon stomping on Rutuu in the “Most Old-School Moment” category. You can browse the categories and videos, but you’ll need a HockeyFights.com forum username and password to vote.
DP’s mask has advanced to round three of the NHL Tournament of Logos blog best goalie mask poll. If he wins this round and he’ll be in the final four.
The polls opened up on Tuesday, so I’m a little late posting this…but DP needs you more than ever. It’s a barnburner - as of this morning, Budaj has a 19 vote lead. Poll closes tomorrow. Vote here.
OK, not really…DP and the boys are making the turn at Bethpage right now. BUT…DP’s mask has advanced to the second round of the Tournament of Logos Blog Goalie Mask Tournament. After disposing of the Duck’s Jonas Hiller in round one 60-40%, DP’s mask takes on another backup goalie, the Devils’ Kevin Weekes. If DP’s sweet mask keeps facing these backup scrubs, it might just cruise all the way to the finals!!
Pretty nice first round of playoff action in the NHL these past two weeks. The Flyers’ game seven victory over the Capitals destroyed my chances of having a perfect first round of predictions for the East. Meanwhile, I got smacked around pretty good out in the West, nailing down just one of the four winners (the Wings). I give the Avalanche a lot of credit for winning three straight to close out the Wild. I also give the Capitals a ton of credit for coming back from a 3-1 deficit to force an exciting seventh game.
One more first round thought while we’re at it, I thought Martin Brodeur should’ve shaken Avery’s hand. I can’t stand Avery. I’ll be the first guy to talk about what a punk he is. That said, Brodeur has to be bigger than that. He has to keep the high ground. With a guy like Avery it almost impossible to lose the high ground, but Marty did. At least for one day.
Onto my second round predictions:
Penguins over Rangers in 6
Canadiens over Flyers in 6
Sharks over Stars in 7
Red Wings over Avalanche in 5
Of all the nights to have men’s league hockey this week, I’m have to miss TWO game seven’s tonight?? After Ovechkin turned the 3rd period of last night’s game into “Ovietime” to force game 7 tonight, Washington and Philly start the party at 7pm tonight. I should be able to catch the first two periods of that game before mine.
That’s followed by Calgary @ San Jose @ 10pm. If you see a red Jeep hauling ass from New Hyde Park to Woodside tonight around 11:30p…that’s me racing home to catch the end of that game. Go Flames!
Anyways…the point of this post is not my impending speeding ticket tonight. It’s this article in the Globe and Mail about the CAL/SJ tilt tonight. It’s the first trip to the playoffs for the Flames’ Eric Nystrom, who’s famous father knows a thing or two about playoff heroics.
This may be Eric Nystrom’s first visit to the NHL playoff party, but he spent his whole life hearing stories from and about his famous father, Bob Nystrom, a member of the New York Islanders’ four Stanley Cup championship teams.
Nystrom, the Calgary Flames’ rookie left winger, doesn’t remember a whole lot of talk about famous seventh games; mostly because his dad’s most famous playoff heroics came in overtime of a sixth game to give the Islanders the 1980 Stanley Cup.
“But he’s talked to me about the time they were down 3-0 and they came back and won it in seven,” said the younger Nystrom.
That came in 1975, when the Islanders, just an up-and-coming team three years removed from their expansion birth — they came into the league with the Atlanta Flames — rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Then they almost did it again next round, overcoming a 3-0 deficit to get it to 3-3 against a Philadelphia Flyers’ team that would eventually win the series and go on to win the Stanley Cup that season.
Only the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs earned a similar distinction.
“He just said, they focused on one game at a time and slowly climbed back,” said Nystrom. “That’s what you need to do in the playoffs. You can’t let one game upset you or rattle you. You’ve just got to keep focused and push the envelope next game.”
The Tournament of Logos Blog goalie mask competition moves on. After Doobie’s Fishstick mask got crushed by The Bulin Wall 61-39%, it’s time for DP’s Armed Forces Tribute mask to take on Jonas Hiller of the Ducks…Duck Mask. Vote early, vote often as DP’s mask is 100% Fishstick Free.
Nice! Mike Milbury now has TWO whole franchises & fanbases ready to lynch him. Only 28 more to go and this guy will finally be completely unemployed.
“I reached out to Mike Milbury last night via NHL commissioner Gary Bettman,” Leonsis wrote. “Gary called me, and we spoke. And then Mike called me, and we spoke late last night.
“Mike calmly explained that he meant no harm. He had a slip of the tongue when trying to start a commentary about our play. He meant to say the Washington Caps but instead he said the Washington Craps.
“He laughed and then stated we weren’t playing well at that time in the game and we were playing like the ‘Crapitals.’ He was trying to be funny and trying to recover - on air - and he misspoke.”
Apparently I know more about NCAA hockey than I do NHL hockey…or I’m just a lucky f*ck. Melt Your Faceoff ran a NCAA Frozen Four pool and when the dust settled, the Boston College Eagles and yours truly stood atop the pack. That should make up (a little) for my 19/20 finish in Mirtle’s Yahoo NHL league this season. New website next year…Hofstra Army!
Coach Ted Nolan told Neil Hodge of Canada’s Times & Transcript that there is no truth to the rumor that he will return to coach the Moncton Wildcats in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League next season.
Nolan coached the Wildcats before joining the Islanders for the 2006-07 season.
“(Wildcats owner Robert Irving) was in New York about a month ago and we went to lunch,” Nolan told the paper. “Maybe someone heard about that and the assumptions and rumours got started there. There’s been no discussion about me coming back to Moncton or anything like that.”
Nolan also talks about the Isles second half meltdown that saw the team lose 15 of their final 20 games.
On the injuries:
“From early January until the end of the season, we had anywhere from five to 12 players out of the lineup. We lost our No. 1 goaltender, five regular defensemen and three of our top six forwards to injury. That was too much to overcome.”
On the team’s future:
“We were defeated this season and if we don’t learn anything from it then we won’t make ourselves better. Winning a championship is what it’s all about and you’re always trying to figure out what it takes to get to that level. You evaluate what you have. You look at other teams and what they have and why they are where they are.”
Robert Nilsson, one of the young players the Islanders gave up last year in the Ryan Smyth trade, landed himself a three year, $6 million pact with the Oilers last week after tallying career highs in goals (10), assists (31) and points (41) in 71 games. The 23-year-old also led the Oilers with a +8.
Smyth, meanwhile, registered 14 goals and 23 assists in just 55 games with the Colorado Avalanche this season. He signed with the Avalanche following his brief stint with the Islanders last season.
