Crashing The Net 11/18

My Thoughts:

1. Well its been a very interesting week around the NHL. I will start off with Sabres news: We are back to being very average again. The boys went 1-2 last week dropping 2 straight and not playing very well at all, barely getting the win against St. Louis thanks to a waived off goal. This will be a big week for the Sabres with games against Boston, Philadelphia and the Islanders. Oh yeah, Tim Connolly is hurt, who woulda thought it?
2. The Tampa Bay Lightning fired head coach Barry Melrose 16 games into the season. Melrose was more of a PR stunt than anything else and proved he is not very in touch with today's NHL player. His first mistake was cutting Lecavalier's playing time followed by allowing Stamkos only 9 minutes a game. How can you bench your best player and your first overall draft pick and not expect mutiny?  Melrose is replaced by Vegas odds-master Rick Tocchet on the bench. The saga continues...
3. Blues center Andy McDonald  will miss at least 8 weeks with a broken leg. Terrible news for Blues fans who lose their losing scorer and already last place in the West. John Tavares anyone?
4. The Anaheim Ducks will be without the services of Francois Beauchemin for at least 6 months as he tore his ACL against Nashville last week. This stings for a red-hot Ducks team.
5. The Penguins shopped veteran defenseman Darryl Sydor to the Dallas Stars for veteran defenseman Brian Boucher. Pretty even deal. Hopefully Sydor can give some much-needed help to Marty Turco.
6. Duck GM Brian Burke has stepped down from his position after expressing his desire to work for another team next season (cough Toronto cough).
7. The KHL released a statement that cleared itself of fault in the Alexei Cherapanov case. What a joke.
8. That offer sheet Kevin Lowe sent to Anaheim's Dustin Penner is coming back to bite him in the ass. Head Coach Craig MacTavish benched Penner calling him, among other things, a waste of money and out of shape. Ouch. Penner has been quiet this season but so has a large portion of the Oil offense. I dont think this is the way to go about getting them to play harder. MacTavish is known for this kind of thing.
9. Puck Daddy wonders whether or not it would be a good idea to allow players to participate in the shootout sans helmet. I, personally, am all for it. Some of the players' personalities would be allowed to shine (as would their mullets) and facial recognition is something the league could use more of. Good luck getting the NHLPA to sign off on it though, the first time someone rings a shot off the iron and it deflects into their face, the whole thing will blow up.
10. Anaheim Ducks AHL affiliate the Iowa Chops debuted their "Thirsty Thursday" promotion with $1 beer sales to great success. Who knew there was such a large underage drinking population in Iowa.
11. Alex Ovechkin has finally found his stride, scoring 5 goals and 10 points last week (4 games). Welcome back Ovie.
12. The Pens and Wings replayed their Finals series to the tune of a 7-6 overtime win for the Penguins.  What a game it was. Highlights in the video section.
13. TSN reports that 70% of players want to grandfather in a mandatory visor rule. If 66% is enough to change the Constitution, 70% should be enough for the NHL.
14. Boston Blueline has a great post in NHL discipline. Read it, seriously. Its a great idea and I think it would work. They have been added to the blogroll.
15. The Avalanche have locked up Paul Stastt\ny to a 5 year extension worth $6.6 million per. Stastny is every bit as much of a stud on the ice as his father was and this is a fair deal for both parties. Congrats to the Avs.
16. Mirtle is his usual brilliant self providing us with two posts. First, on the severity of the Islanders situation and, second, a touching story about a terminally ill goalie given a chance to play.

Pictures of the Week:

Hank Tallinder really knows how to celebrate, which is good considering this is following his first goal of the year, the eventual game-winner.

So does Ovie...

My father took this picture at the military academy in West Point, NY. Thats a seriously bad miss.

Tom Poti is sporting an awesome hockey face these days

This is just a cool picture overall

Here is your weekly picture of my future wife, Carrie Milbank

Videos of the Week (There are lots):

The Coach:

Ron MacLean's interview with Barry Melrose. Barry is clearly a little out of touch with what happened to his job. Are things so bad for him that he lost his house? Why is this being filmed in a parking lot?

Milan Lucic goes all beast mode on Michael Komisarek.

Scott Hartnell is a whiny little girl. In other news, the desert is hot.

This is one of the many reasons hockey is so awesome.

On first view this is a cool deke. In slow-mo, its the move of the year.

As promised, the game of the year: Pens/Wings.

No one ever said goalies were normal.

Have a good week and happy thanksgiving.