Hockey Fans

Status
Not open for further replies.
RANGERS OFF TO THE ALL-STAR GAME

Lundqvist, who will be the Rangers’ lone representative in Sunday’s NHL All-Star Game, has earned that honor with continued excellent play. Lundqvist has started 40 of the Blueshirts’ 48 games so far this season and has posted 24 victories, a 2.53 goals against average, .914 save percentage, and two shutouts. He is third in the league in wins and fourth in games played, though numbers do not do justice to his importance to the team.

“All you have to do is look over your shoulder back at our own goal every night to know why we have had the success we have had,” said Dubinsky. “Hank has just been unbelievable. And with Steve Valiquette, I think we have the best goalie tandem in the entire league.”

While Renney agrees that Lundqvist has been the linchpin to the Rangers’ strong season, so far, the Rangers’ bench boss likes a lot of what he has seen from his club.

“Our penalty killing has been excellent, our scoring has been balanced, and Henrik has been nothing short of great on a nightly basis,” said Renney. “What I like most about our team is that we have a group of guys that really care, they just hate to lose.”


“I am going to go up there and enjoy the All-Star Game, and a lot of the other guys will go away and do something else other than think about hockey,” explained Lundqvist, the first-time All Star. “When we come back, I’ll be excited for the last push. The games will be more important. I love this time of year.”


Source: http://rangers.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=405926
 
Brian Campbell on NHL's suspension threat to injured all-stars
By Greg Wyshynski for Yahoo! Sports

MONTREAL -- The NHL's attempt to strong-arm players who no-show the all-star game was, by far, the hottest topic of the Western Conference media scrum. Which sort of makes the NHL's case when you consider players in the game were being asked so many questions about players who weren't there -- rather than the guy standing next to them.

From Darren Dreger of TSN:
"The NHL says it will enforce an understanding that all players who decline to show after being named to the All-Star teams must miss at least one game before or one game after the All-Star weekend.

If so, Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom may be forced to sit the Red Wings next game if they don't immediately change their All-Star break plans and report to Montreal."

A little background, from what I've been able to ascertain. No less than seven players missed the NHL All-Star Game last season in Atlanta for various reasons: Martin Brodeur wanted the rest, Sidney Crosby was hurt, Roberto Luongo wanted to spend time with his pregnant wife.

I've been told NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman addressed this concern before the 2008-09 season, and mentioned penalties for players -- specifically starters -- who did not play in the all-star game without a legitimate injury excuse.

Whether Crosby decided to come hear to Montreal because of this internal pressure is up to him to confirm. But all the talk around here is about the League "targeting" the Detroit Red Wings players who have opted out due to injury.

Is this fair? I put the question to Chicago Blackhawks defenseman and Detroit rival Brian Campbell.

"I've answered it about six times today already," he said, at the tail end of the Western Conference all-stars' press mingling.

Campbell said that it's a shared responsibility between the teams and their players to get representatives to the all-star game. "It's not just players; it's teams that are telling them they don't want to go and play either. It's both. So do you penalize the teams or the players?" he said.

Think about the Columbus Blue Jackets. Consider if Steve Mason had somehow been voted into the NHL All-Star Game as a starter. Pascal Leclaire is done the season, and Mason and the team claim he's playing through discomfort.

Honestly, if he can play a regular season game through back spasms, he can play one period of all-star hockey, right? Should the NHL force the guy they're calling Stevie Franchise into an exhibition game?

"If these guys have injuries, then they need to get better," said Campbell. "There's a lot at stake for the playoffs. It's not easy getting there, and some teams really want their players to rest and some players feel like to be at their best they need the rest."

Exactly. It's an exhibition game. Sure, the players should have a legitimate injury concern. And hey, maybe they show up anyway like Sidney is.

But is the attendance of either the Red Wings in the NHL All-Star Game more important than ... oh, let's say the Stanley Cup playoffs?

Campbell said that's a fair point, but that the all-star game remains an important event.

"The best players should be here. If they can come. It's a great event."
---

Um, so if I'm named to the All-Star team and get hurt in a game before then and decide I'm not going to play, then they are going to force me out of another game because I'm hurt? Don't they want to protect their "all-star" players from aggrivating an injury?
I know some players just say "I don't want to go" but most of them are actually hurt. I also understand that they want their best players in the game, but this reasoning just doesn't make any sense to me.
 
Last edited:
WELCOME, csi Tazz !:thumbsup:

You`ve come to the right place. Although I must say this thread is dominated with New York Rangers fans(myself) But don`t mind us.......:lol::lol::lol:



In responce to SpeedyMeg25 article:


Its lame that all of these hockey players make those types of excuses ( except for injury, thats legit),
It almost seems like they either don`t care, or just don`t want to be part of the game. Losers!

I`m not even sure just how seriously the All-star games are taken.
 
Last edited:
Welcome csi Tazz! :D

I think the problem is that the All-Star game is taken a little too seriously.

It is a game that was designed to bring some of the best players in each conference together on the same team. The talent that would never normally be playing with each other come and form a team to take on other stars for fun.

And that's where those in charge seem to have issues. They forget that point of the weekend is to bring all the players together, both for themselves and for their fans. It's going a bit too far to say that if the skaters don't show up they'll have to pay the price.
But who am I to question the powers of the NHL...:rolleyes:

After Friday's draw, the League determined the official order of shooters for the Gatorade NHL Elimination Shootout. Each goalie will face all nine of his opponents before yielding the crease to the next goalie. The competition will begin with Minnesota's Niklas Lidstrom, followed by Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers, Anaheim's J.S. Giguere and Boston's Tim Thomas.

Henrik Lundqvist, Rangers, will be facing:

Shane Doan, Phoenix
Dustin Brown, Los Angeles
Stephane Robidas, Dallas
Andrei Markov, Montreal
Zdeno Chara, Boston
Keith Tkachuk, St. Louis
Jeff Carter, Philadelphia
Rick Nash, Columbus
Vincent Lecavalier, Tampa Bay

I think the biggest threat there would have to be Zdeno Chara and his 107 MPH shots.
My advice to Henrik: Get outta that puck's way! :lol:
 
So I guess asking wether you guys agree or disagree with the
"punishment" is pointless.


Here's waht surprised me: Sidney Crosby(whom I strongly dislike) showed up even though he was injured. He won't be lacing up his skates, but at least he's there.So then why are these other players making lame excuses not to show up?

Personally, I agree with it. Miss a game before or after, or get suspended.All star games should be about celebrating the weekend with fans, and showing all the best that the NHL has to offer.Why is that so difficult? Maybe the players are getting selfish.
=====================================================================


Speaking of Henrik, I got a chance to get a glimpse of him today at the

All-Star Game on Sports chanel. He was sitting with a few other guys at a

round table in a grey suit and a purple tie playing with the All-Star pucks.

Being all cute and 'all :luvlove::luvlove::luvlove::luvlove::luvlove::luvlove::luvlove::luvlove:


And I'm sure he'll have no problem deflecting those pucks, and C'mon

Its Henrik LOL:lol:.
 
Isn't Henrik always being cute though? ;)

Ovechkin, Malkin put feud to rest in SuperSkills
By SEAN FARRELL, For The Associated Press

Russian superstars Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin teamed up to the delight of the Bell Centre crowd and both were winners in the NHL’s All-Star SuperSkills competition Saturday night.

Ovechkin successfully defended his breakaway challenge title as the evening’s six events were conducted independently of one another, unlike previous years that featured an overall title contested by the two conferences.

The high-scoring Washington left wing played to the crowd—with a huge assist from Pittsburgh’s Malkin—and garnered 42.8 percent of the fan voting via text messages.

Malkin claimed the shooting accuracy title, hitting three of four targets in a playoff with Ottawa’s Dany Heatley after both nailed all four targets in four shots in the opening round.

Boston captain Zdeno Chara broke Al Iafrate’s 16-year-old hardest shot record with a blistering 105.4 (!!!) mph slap shot on the final attempt of the event.

Phoenix’s Shane Doan scored on four of six penalty shot attempts to outlast Boston’s Marc Savard in the elimination shootout finale that featured all 36 skaters taking turns against goalies Niklas Backstrom of Minnesota, the Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers, Anaheim’s Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Boston’s Tim Thomas.

Montreal’s Carey Price and Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo, who both recently returned from injuries, did not take part in the elimination shootout.

Nashville defenseman Shea Weber drove a 103.3 mph shot that looked as if it might hold up after Chara hit 103.3 mph on his first attempt.

The 6-foot-9 Bruins defenseman drew an ovation from the crowd of 21,273 after he broke Iafrate’s record of 105.2 set at the Montreal Forum in 1993.

Ovechkin scored points from the get-go as the last of the six contestants in the breakaway competition, waving his hand at the crowd to draw the fans’ support.
In a nod to his supposed feud with Malkin, Ovechkin skated over to his East teammates before his final attempt.

Malkin helped him put on an outback hat—with a Canadian flag stuck to the brim—and white-framed wraparound sunglasses before pouring a sports drink down Ovechkin’s throat.

Ovechkin, a right-handed shot, took Malkin’s left-handed stick before driving in while stickhandling the puck with both sticks.

Ovechkin tossed his own stick into the right corner before taking a left-handed shot, which was stopped before he slapped it home with a second effort.

He then skated over to the left side boards and tossed the hat and the sunglasses into the crowd.

Boston rookie Blake Wheeler was awarded the YoungStars game MVP after scoring four goals to lead the rookies to a 9-5 victory over the sophomores. Wheeler scored on Montreal goalie Carey Price—the Eastern Conference starter for Sunday’s All-Star game—in each of the three 6-minute periods in the 3-on-3 game.

Tampa Bay’s Steve Stamkos scored twice, and St. Louis’ Patrick Berglund, Toronto’s Luke Schenn and Los Angeles’ Drew Doughty added goals for coach Luc Robitaille’s rookies.

Rangers defenseman Marc Staal scored twice on Nashville’s Pekka Rinne for coach Peter Mahovlich’s sophomores, including his first of the game in the first period moments after he checked Dallas rookie James Neal into the boards on the left side.

Chicago’s Dave Bolland, Vancouver’s Mason Raymond and San Jose’s Devon Setoguchi also scored for the sophomores.

Edmonton’s Andrew Cogliano won the fastest skater competition that opened the evening. Cogliano, a YoungStars participant who was the last of six competitors, raced around the rink in 14.31 seconds to beat Philadelphia center Jeff Carter, whose 14.43 lap as the second skater nearly stood up.

---
Poor Henrik got beat :( but he still did pretty good though. Suprised me a little bit that Doan won.
I will have to say that Oveckhin's Breakaway thing was the funniest thing I've seen all day! :lol:
 
01/24/09.

First I'd like to say it was an interesting event to watch. There were big names the locker rooms, it was quite interesting to watch them talk and even get along.

As far as competition goes............

It was funny to watch to make a unique shot.....But they were a bit slow on the set up for the shot.But good try guys!:thumbsup:

~ I also liked what Steve Stamkos did in the competition. He got good speed and a quick puck. He pulled a few good shots - which got him 2 goals.


What Ovechkin did was hilarious.
He got what he wanted - this one is definatly going to be a Youtube hit. LOL
smiley-laughing.gif
And now I have some thing to laugh about all week.


I was a little disappointed that our guys didn't quite get the welcome they deserved. But its Montreal,Canada. Its expected. Sadly. I was probably the only one cheering these guys on, Especially Hank.

~ Rookie v.s. Sophomores - that was surprising!!! Rookies beat sophomores??!! 8 -5, If I'm not mistaken.
Every generation in hockey seems to be getting better and better..........LOL =)


~ Two of our guys were there Dubi and Staal.
It was funny when Dubi got the puck up in the air and over the guys. Nice try:p.

Marc Staal I had more expectation because he can be more agressive and more active in the play, this
time he was more passive. He could have just "Played the part". But he did get 2 goal so I'll settle with that.

Also, It was hard to keep up beacuse they all wore different jerseys it was hard to tell who belonged to
what team..........

Hank in the shootouts:

Not bad, I think he could have waited out the first goal, he came up a bit short.
Other than that he stoped a few good goals - that was nice to see. Most memorable was the - one on
one with Mike Modano, nice save by Hank.

He wasn't bad, he looked like he was having fun and thats all that matters.



Looking forward for tonight when the East meets the West.
 
Last edited:
Ovechkin definitely went out there and did what he does best: play to the fans. You can always tell that he really enjoys what he does, especially if he can add some fun into it. Evgeni Malkin really enjoyed it too I think. :)
I'm glad Malkin won the Accouracy Shooting too. He looked so excited when they told him he'd won it.

Boy, did the Rookies ever stick it to the Sophomores yesterday!
9-5 is quite an impressive score, especially when you think that 4 of those 9 belong to just one person - Blake Wheeler.
I don't think that Staal played as agressively as normal, but two goals is nothing to be ashamed of. If only we could get him to score goals like that in regular games too. ;)

I have yet to watch the Elimination Shootouts with Henrik. My computer and the videos on NHL don't get along with each other so I'll have to go back and try to watch it later.

I think the East is going to mop the floor with the West tonight though ;)
Or I hope so anyway.
 
Last edited:
Even the interviwers said that Ovechkin is the only guy who looks like he enjoys playing hockey.LOL:lol: I might have to disagree.

9-5 ? Was that the score, my bad. I must have been distracted that night:lol:.

Sadly there wasn't a whole coverage on Hank, as little as there was - it was fun to watch. (Its true what they say he never stops smiling - even on ice)

He spoke Eric Staal in between periods and the Boston Bruins goaltender.
I wonder what they were talking about????:confused:
 
Well, if Hank thinks like we do he was probably like "Hey Eric, there is no way Marc is your brother." ;)

I would just like to say that for once I have correctly predicted the winner of a hockey game - East 12 over West 11!

The Western scorers were:
Tkachuk, K. (01:16 in 1st), Marleau, P. (19:48 in 1st), Souray, S. (03:29 in 2nd), Boyle, D. (05:14 in 2nd), Nash, R. (08:27 in 2nd), Hejduk, M. (09:02 in 2nd), Souray, S. (10:34 in 2nd), Iginla, J. (16:46 in 2nd), Doan, S. (00:32 in 3rd), Toews, J. (02:32 in 3rd), Kane, P. (15:19 in 3rd)

The Eastern scorers were:
Ovechkin, A. (06:26 in 1st), Staal, E. (09:30 in 1st), Kovalev, A. (16:34 in 1st), Markov, A. (19:23 in 1st), St. Louis, M. (01:21 in 2nd), Parise, Z. (02:11 in 2nd), Malkin, E. (07:45 in 2nd), Kovalev, A. (13:35 in 2nd), Heatley, D. (02:17 in 3rd), St. Louis, M. (13:19 in 3rd), Bouwmeester, J. (16:21 in 3rd), Kovalev, A. (00:00 in 2nd OT)

MONTREAL (AP)—The NHL All-Star game was settled in the newest of ways in hockey’s oldest city.

Alex Ovechkin sealed the Eastern Conference’s 12-11 victory Sunday night with a goal in the third round of the shootout. It capped off the busiest of nights for the NHL’s reigning MVP, who also had a goal and two assists.

The biggest cheer of the night went to hometown hero Alex Kovalev, the Canadiens star who earned MVP honors with a pair of breakaway goals and then another in the shootout against Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo.

No penalties until 1st overtime which suprised me since all of the "stars" were playing against each other.
Henrik went 15-21 which is pretty amazing as per his usual :D
 
Last edited:
SpeedyMeg25 said:
I would just like to say that for once I have correctly predicted the winner of a hockey game - East 12 over West 11!
Click to expand...

Hey, awesome predicting job. I was cheering for the East right til the end. Awesome game. I mean, how often do you get to say your team won 12 to 11 in a shootout?

I'm really glad the All-Star Game was in Montreal because apparently the Game's been there 10 times before and 9 of those times they've won the Cup, so I'm crossing my fingers :)

Still, I'm aching for some Sens action. We don't play until tomorrow :(
 
^^ Thanks, I'll never be able to predict it that good again. :lol:

Bergeron cleared to play for Bruins tonight
Bergeron Returns :D

"He's in," said Bruins head coach Claude Julien of forward Patrice Bergeron.

The two words brought a reinvigorated feeling to the Garden this morning as the Bruins prepared to face off against their Eastern Conference rivals, the Washington Capitals, on Tuesday evening.

"We were looking forward to having him back in the lineup," said Julien. "He’s feeling good and we’re glad to have him back and I think under the circumstances this is a real positive and great news for our hockey club."

Additionally, Andrew Ference and Milan Lucic will be on tonight's roster.

And while everyone is thrilled, there will actually be some adjustments that need to be made. For instance, there will probably be seven defensemen on the roster, tonight. Also, depending on Ryder's availability, Bergeron may be playing right wing.

"We have...guys that are more offensive minded, we’ve got guys that are checkers and we just kind of have to balance the lines out," said Julien. "Basically, moving him up on the wing for the time being is the right move for us. He’s played the wing before and there’s no doubt he’ll be more than happy to, more or less, bail us out."

Julien was happy to finally have some of his missing pieces back in the box, but tried not to get over excited.

"We’ve been waiting for that for a while," he said. "But again, just when you think you’ve got them all back, there’s a couple of guys that are being pulled out.

-----

I'm so happy that Patrice is feeling good again, especially well enough that he's able to play.
Let's just hope that he doesn't get himself hurt any more
 
I'd just like to say that Bergeron got an assist in his first game back Tuesday night! :D He's already off to doing better than he was before the injury.

First of all, the Rangers won on Monday night against the Hurricanes 3-2.
Goals were by Gomez, Dubinsky, and Korpikoski, while Valiquette stopped 33 of 35 shots against him. The three stars of the game were Gomez, Naslund, and Dubinsky. Not saying that those three didn't do a god job, but I think maybe Valli should have been one of the stars. He was very impressive.

Much less on the happy side, the Rangers got steamrolled by the Penguins tonight at 6-2. While Zherdev and Marc Staal both made goals for the Rangers, it wasn't quite enough. Sykora and Letang both had two goals for the Pens while Jordan Staal and Crosby also had one each. So it was a big night for the Staal brothers since that was Marc's 2nd goal of the season and Jordan got a lucky goal.
Apparently I have been spoiled by Valiquette's awesome win yesterday... However, I must say Crosby's backwards goal was kind of cool.
Just some other notes: Pittsburgh's Eric Godard and New York's Colton Orr fought three seconds into the game, and Rangers' Ryan Callahan missed his first game this season. He sat out due to the flu and I hope he feels better before the next game on Saturday.

And a note to my Rangers: make more shots on goal. You're never going to get a goal if you don't shoot at the net.
 
Last edited:
Okay, I hate Detroit but I have tosay... it's been in the news because FInnish player, Ville Leino was called from AHL two days ago and he hasn't really been playing in AHL either but today he was playing for Detroid, and scored his first goal ever in NHL.
And wasn't bad either :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnIGiLubURU

I am just watching Habs - Kings game. yay! If I could wake up at 2am to see Pens game.. yayaya!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top