Why Hockey is Better Than Baseball

Major League Baseball playoffs are about to start and, thus, a conflict of interest for yours truly. I love baseball but, to be honest, its tough to be a total fan over the course of a 162 game season. Baseball, like every other sport, gets a lot more interesting during the playoffs and viewership picks up but the problem lies in the fact that the MLB postseason starts right when the NHL regular season starts. I always struggle with what to watch on any given night but recently the question was answered for me in the form of a picture. What do the Stanley Cup Champions do when they win? Thats correct people, drink from the Cup. I don't think this is what Lord Stanley had in mind...

The worst part is that the Tampa Bay Rays didn't even win the World Series. This is just for winning the pennant. Mark my words, this disgrace will cost them.

Need a Break From the Work I Ignored All Weekend

So I figured I would talk hockey for a bit. As we speak we are less than a week away from the official, albeit hokey, start of the NHL season in Prague. The Sabres played another preseason game tonight against the Wild and lost 2-1 in a shootout. Last night the boys beat the Leafs 3-2 in OT. I neither watched nor listened to either of these games so unfortunately I cannot comment on them other than its a bummer we lost tonight on a bad bounce with 3 minutes left. Here are the headlines:

• The Ducks traded 19 season veteran defenseman Mathieu Schneider to Atlanta in exchange for 3 no namers in a move to clear cap space. Schneider had already passed through waivers but Anaheim was having a hard time moving him because of his large salary. Atlanta gets the better deal here but, believe me, this guy is not going to make the Thrashers magically start winning games.
  
• A day after trading Schneider the Ducks signed veteran winger Teemu Selanne. Selanne was very patient in waiting for the Ducks and displayed his loyalty to the franchise. The terms of the deal are two years at $2.625 million per. Thats dirt cheap for a player of his calibre in today's NHL.
• On a sad note, Paul Newman, the main character in the greatest sports movie of all time died of cancer over the weekend. Newman will be forever immortalized by puckheads for his role as Reg Dunlop in Slapshot.
• Note in the picture above that the Sabres logo at center ice is the vintage logo. Sick!

You Know Its Hockey Season When...

I get very little accomplished between the hours of 7:00 and 10:00. I resisted the temptation to stop working and go watch the Sabres/Habs game all the way through the first period but eventually broke down and made my way to my fraternity house to watch the game on the NHL Network. The Sabres lost 3-2 but here are my thoughts based on the two periods of play I watched, in no particular order. Please take these all with a grain of salt because it is still the preseason and lineups are changing everyday:

• The Power Play needs some work. Its given up 3 short-handed goals in 2 games and has one lucky goal for. It may just be a matter of finding the right guys to man the points but its a point of some concern for me.
• Derek Roy looks good. He is playing confidently and the puck seems to follow him. He looked solid on the half-wall and is in control when leading the rush. I saw very few errant passes from him and his shot selection was good. He scored one of the goals on a rush by just out-muscling the goalie after faking the pass. Roy just might live up to his contract this year.
• Nathan Paetsch looked pretty bad. I was a big Paetsch supporter last year but he did not impress me tonight. He's a guy whose on the bubble for the 7th D-man and right now he is being outplayed by his counterparts from Portland. Nathan pinched at bad times and was just generally out of position more often than I would have liked to have seen (that is, never, especially from a guy with a significant amount of NHL experience).
• Tim Connolly was wearing the "C" tonight for white and looked comfortable with it. He did his best with the power play and will be a huge asset once again this year on the PK. Tim looks to be in good shape and moving well, lets just hope he can stay healthy.
• Jason Pominville looked average to me tonight. Nothing dazzling, nothing special. He was manning the point for one of the short handed goals but the play was not on his side and Paetsch pinched inadvisably. Pominville did not have a single shortie scored on him last season when he was working the point on the PP so I'm not too worried about him. He was also lacking his favorite center, Jochen Hecht.
• Gragnani is not ready for the NHL yet.
• Lalime looked ok. He was the victim of a bad bounce in the first and was hung out to dry for the other two short handed goals he gave up. Positionally he looked pretty good with the exception of a few plays. He will be a much more reliable backup than Thibault was last season.
• Maxim Afinogenov looks like the 2006-07 Maxim Afinogenov. He has ditched that extra move that always seemed to cause him to give up the puck. He was quick as ever and looked decent on the backcheck as well as distributing the puck well and realizing when it was time to pass. Funny how things fall into place in a contract year, huh?
• Mike Weber looked very solid on the blue line. Very few mistakes out of the kid, don't be surprised to see him playing in Buffalo in October.
• Kennedy looked good as well, he might be a mid-season call up.
• Lydman and Tallinder looked their usual selves
• Stafford looked decent as did Clarke MacArthur.
• Finally, on to Nate Gerbe. Gerbe already possesses NHL speed, which was on display tonight. He also looked stronger than I expected and his timing looked good too. He plays a bigger game in the corners than most people would guess as well. He scored the other goal for the Sabres on a slapper from the circle tops that went top cheddar on the far side, a beautiful goal. For equipment junkies like me, it looks like Gerbe is planning on making the bigs with his custom colored Sabres sticks. To be honest, I would love to see him jump straight to the pros but I don't see it happening. That doesn't mean we wont see him later in the year though.

Thats it except for the fact that Stamkos scored another dirty goal, this one in regulation against the Rangers. It was a wrist shot from the low left circle that caught the far upper corner. I have no doubt that he will play on one of the top two lines for the Lightning this season.

Until next time, keep those sticks on the ice.

Third Best Day of the Year...

Yes folks thats correct, its not the start of the playoffs or the regular season but the first time the Sabres take the ice for the year. I was having a pretty crappy day but when I got home it all got better because the boys in blue and gold had already taken the ice. We are currently down 3-1. I would love to be watching the game online for free through Leafs TV but since I have a Vermont IP address I cannot access it. Lame. Add that one to the long list of reasons I hate Toronto. In fact, its only saving grace is the fact that my sister lives there. Better make that a 4-1 deficit halfway through the second with the only Sabres goal coming from Marek Zagrapan 45 seconds into the game on a PP. Peters has already been tossed for unsportsmanlike conduct and both him and Kaleta have been involved in scuffles. What was I saying about crappy day? Hockey has that ability. Even the fact that Sarah Palin likes hockey can't sway me away from my beloved sport.

Steven Stamkos played in his first game at the NHL level winning his first draw (against Sidney Crosby) and scoring a filthy shootout goal for the win. Heres a video of highlights from the game.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge fan of San Jose's gritty third line center Torrey Mitchell. Not only did he go to UVM but he plays the game the way it was meant to be played ("with a lot of heart and a big back of knuckles" according to Mike Myers' character Donnie Shulzhoffer in Mystery, Alaska). Unfortunately, yesterday at practice his leg collided with the post while going to the net breaking his tibia and fibula. He is expected to be out 8 weeks (that means 12). Not only is this a huge blow to the Sharks who now will likely have to move Marleau to center but also to Mitchell's career. He played in all 82 games last season recording 10 goals and 20 points as well as a goal and 2 assists in the playoffs. Hopefully he can return with no side-effects. Luckily for Mitchell, it was not a tendon pull/tear, those can nag you for the rest of your career.

Finally, the Sabres extended GM Darcy Regier two more years. Regier has come under fire for letting Briere, Drury, McKee, Campbell and Grier leave in recent years but I still think he has done a decen job running the team, especially in some tough times. Then again, I look at that list of players, players I loved to watch and who were quality teammates, and wonder why it took him so long to realize how to sign players under the new CBA.

With that said, Go Sabres (and take the Bills with you). I stole that line from my father and I'm not ashamed to admit it because I am slowly turning into him.

Population of Pominville Jumps to 26.5 Million

Thats correct folks, my boy Jason Pominville is now locked up through 2013-14. This great news. Now I can continue to wear my sweater with pride. Hopefully with a long-term deal signed the Sabres will not hesitate to name him full time captain. The terms of the deal are 5 years at $5.3 million per. As excited as I am for this extension I cant help but think back two summers when a similar deal was offered to Chris Drury and somehow the Sabres brass managed to screw it up. I love Jason Pominville and he is my favorite player in the NHL today but I would take Chris Drury over him any day for that money. Now I feel bad for ending an exciting post on a somewhat depressing note so heres a picture to make up for it...

Minor Stuff

Well, I was looking at my calendar today and I noticed that Training Camp starts in 2 days! Awesome. My job with the Women's team here at UVM has started to heat up as well so I'm pretty thrilled to once again be immersed in hockey. Heres a few tidbits of news to tide you over until all the exciting stories start coming out of training camp:

• The Red Wings locked up Darren McCarty for another year. Great, as if the Red Wings didn't already have almost the exact same players as the Cup winning team, they keep some grit around as well.
• The Ducks placed Mathieu Schneider on waivers in an attempt to make cap space for the return of Teemu Selanne. Unfortunately for them Schneider cleared waivers and now must be sent down to the AHL and back up whereupon anyone can pick him up at half his salary (around $2.5 million). That certainly wouldn't be a terrible deal for a high scoring defenseman with a great plus/minus (+22 last season with 12 goals and 27 assists in 65 games).
• The Flyers named Mike Richards their captain for the upcoming season. No surprise here, he's been tabbed as the next captain since he was drafted and this was a good time to make it official. The Flyers now have a solid team as well as a clear cut leader/face of the team.
• Hurricanes forward Justin Williams underwent surgery today to repair his achilles tendon (injured in an off-ice workout). He will miss 4-6 months. This is a huge blow to the 'Canes. Williams is a point per game guy and was missed dearly by Carolina when he went down last season with a torn ACL. If he could stay healthy, he would be a great contributor to the 'Canes' roster.
• Puck Daddy has found some video evidence of the Slovakian beatdown of Bulgaria I posted on. Its a disgrace to even call this a hockey game.
• Mats Sundin is still a jerk
• Jason Pominville is still unsigned. Its going to suck playing against him when the Sabres fail to sign him and he bolts for Montreal.

Staal Signs Long-term Deal with Canes

Carolina Hurricanes forward Eric Staal just signed a 7 year deal reportedly worth $57.75 million at an average per season hit of $8.25 million. Call me crazy but that seems a bit excessive for a guy who has never scored more than 100 points in a season. His cap hit is higher than both Crosby and Malkin not to mention big-name centers like Chris Drury, Scott Gomez and Daniel Briere. If good (not great) players keep getting contracts that large, the NHL has another lockout in its sights.

Quick Note: The Montreal Canadiens have annonced that they are retireing Patrick Roy's number. Sweet. Roy is still a jerk though.

My Life is in Order!

So yeah, I have not posted in a long time due in large part to the fact that classes started last week and, until today at around noon, I was a junior with no major, no money and no purpose in life. Well I'm pleased to say that at least now I have a major (Community Development and Applied Economics for those of you who care) even if the other two are still lacking. Considering I just joined 5 brand new classes I dont have any homework so I figured I would catch up here while my roommate actually does something with his life. Enough about me, heres the hockey news and views:

• Detroit continues to be a model of how to run a franchise signing geezer Chris Chelios to a one year deal. Chelios is now officially older than time itself and was a mere 4 years old when hockey was invented. When Chelios dies in the year 3000, so will hockey.
• The blogosphere has been abuzz with news from the Womens pre-Olympic qualifier. Slovakia disgraced Bulgaria in the final game of the tournament, blanking the Bulgarian women 82-0. Ouch. Heres some stats that I've managed to scrounge up from my more esteemed colleagues. There were 12 players with hat tricks (thats all four lines folks) including one 10-goal scorer, two 9-goal scorers and four others with 8 goals. Every Slovak was plus-22 or better. There were two Bulgarians that were minus-39. Bulgaria was out scored 192-1 throughout the four game tournament with their only goal coming on their only shot against Croatia. As Puck Daddy points out, Bulgaria allowed more goals in 4 games than the Detroit Red Wings did in all 82 games last season (184). They had seven total shots in the tournament. As much fun and amazing it is to look at these stats, to be honest I dont think I have ever seen a poorer showing of sportsmanship. Isn't 40-0 enough?
  
• Pat Quinn will step in as the new head coach of team Canada for the World Junior Championships. No surprise there. Quinn will likely be looking to make a return to NHL level coaching if this gig goes well.
• Some joker over at the Globe and Mail reported that the Tampa Bay Lightning are now interested in the services of Mats Sundin. As ridiculous as this is, I wonder if anyone has told the Bolts' brass that they're not going to be able to win every game 11-10 and are going to have to learn how to play some defense once in a while. What a gongshow that boardroom must be.
• The KHL season started almost a week ago. There seems to be quite a bit of fighting going on and they even have their own Sidney Crosby wanna be.  
• On a similar note I would like to extend a very special thank you to the newly formed league for getting rid of garbage like Chris Simon for us: 

          There was also this gem of a brawl. So much for being a threat to the NHL.

• Brendan Shanahan should chop Mats Sundin down with his stick if they ever end up on the same ice surface again. Shanahan has said since the beginning of the summer that he wants to continue playing for the Rangers and his position has not changed. The Rangers, however, are waiting on a response from Sundin which may not come until after the season starts. If they commit the money to Shanahan they might as well kiss Sundin goodbye. Its a pretty terrible thing to do on both the Rangers' and Sundin's part. If it was up to me, I would sign Shanahan. The Rangers already have Drury and Gomez at center. It might not sit well with any of them to be the third-line center, especially getting paid the money that they are.
• The Florida Panthers signed Keith Ballard to a six year, $25.2 million deal. Ballard was part of the draft-day deal that saw Olli Jokinen go to Phoenix. Ballard has 19 goals and 87 points as well as 243 PIM in 233 career games. That seems like a lot of money to be throwing at a guy with those kind of numbers but I guess the Cats need all the help they can get.
• Finally, a leaked photo of the Sabres' new third jerseys has made its way onto the interweb. To put it simply, it looks great! Hello Christmas 2008. I'll have to get a Gil Perreault jersey to appease my parents into buying me one. Seriously though, why did it take so long to get it right?

Sunny Days for Meszaros, McCabe

So a few days ago the Ottawa Senators traded defenseman Andrej Meszaros to the Tampa Bay Lightning for defensemen Filip Kuba and Alexandre Picard as well as a first round pick in 2009. A day later the Lightning signed him to a six year deal reportedly worth around $5 million a season. The lightning definitely got the short end of the stick in this trade but the team has nearly no NHL calibre defensemen and were in desperate need of a responsible D-man. Meszaros becomes the only member of the Bolts defensive corps that was a plus last season. The Lightning have made huge improvements this season but are still lacking in the most important aspect: a Playoff Goaltender. I'm sorry but Olaf Kolzig is not a Cup-worthy goalie. He was just over .500 last season and is, to put it politely, a veteran. I cant see this team making it into the playoffs without a better tender. Once that happens though, look out.

Unfortunately, another talented player is headed for the no-mans-land we call the Southeast Division. Bryan McCabe, formerly of the Toronto Maple Leafs, was traded, along with a fourth round pick in 2010 to the Florida Panthers for defenseman Mike Van Ryn. This one goes in favor of the Leafs in my opinion. McCabe was audibly unhappy in Toronto and only stuck around this long to get the $2 million he was owed as of September 1. Van Ryn is nothing special but at least they got something for McCabe.

On a less sunny note, the Vancouver Canucks are set to honor the late Luc Bourdon at their home opener. Bourdon died in a tragic motorcycle crash over the summer. According to TSN:

The Canucks are asking fans to join the team prior to the 7:30pm puck drop for a pre-game ceremony that will include a video tribute to the late Bourdon and a moment of silence. As fans arrive, they will be presented with a commemorative pin in honour of Bourdon.

The organization will continue to remember Bourdon throughout the season with an element added to each player's helmet. Hosts at General Motors Place will also continue to wear the commemorative pin for all 41 regular season home games in 2008-09.

Classy move. Hockey is one of the best sports when it comes to things like this. Well, that and its the best sport ever played. More to come sometime soon. Classes are starting so things are getting a little crazy but I'll do my best to post more often, especially now that the season is getting closer.