NHL: National Hockey League

By digi The prevailing story heading into last night's game against the Sabres was "Flyers fight Flu, face stingiest defensive team in league."  Usually, Jim Jackson likes to get his excuses for a Flyers loss out of the way so the actual loss doesn't seem so bad.  In this case, half the team was dying...

By digi Okay, a slight exaggeration... or is it? There was a long stretch before this current three game win streak where the Flyers were a bit of floating debris, awash in a sea of inconsistency and turmoil. I will attest that... Okay, a slight exaggeration...  or is it?  There was a long stretch before this c...

By Jason Brough Prune Juice Enthusiasts Monthly Article: "Vancouver: Team of Nancy Boys" Office Worker's Weekly Article: "Canucks Provide Important Lessons in Job Safety" Cult-Joiners Journal Article: "Now More than Ever, Vancouver Needs Dianetics"

By Scott Mackie about the games they actually won eh?? 8-4 start with no Patrik Elias and a mish-mosh D corps and 4th line… the NHL’s regular season Juggernaut rolls on!! (I swear the Devils are the NHL’s version of the Indianpolis Colts…)… and the year is young, even if the writer ain’t! ——————————————-

By mj-kasprzak The San Jose Sharks are back on the road after a brief two-game homestand. Not that it matters—they just keep winning. After a slow start to the season (3-3-0-1), they are red hot, winning five in a row and seven of eight and moving up to the second best record in the Western Conference.

By Jon Neely His 17 points (2 G, 15 A) not only leads the Leafs in points, but puts him on top of the list of defenseman scoring. The next closest player to him is San Jose's Dan Boyle, who has 13 points, but has played 15 games; three more than Kaberle. Now more than ever, Kaberle deserves to be the captain.

By Scott Mackie Well you kinda had this feeling it was gonna be UGLY without Paul Martin in the lineup (am I going to trivialize the loss of Pandolfo? Probably… and he’s nowhere NEAR as important to this team…. I’d say on Elias, Zajac and Parise mean more to this team then Paul Martin… but Scott… you mean [...]

By Sebastien Tremblay Montreal certainly picks up many North Americans skaters but doesn’t draft that many Europeans and to be honest, besides Andrei Markov, Montreal hasn't had much chance with their Euro "future stars". There is indeed a « hole » on the Canadiens European depth chart.

By Greg Wyshynski The Pittsburgh Penguins, facing a significant injury of their own, are in much better shape. The Penguins lost defenseman Sergei Gonchar(notes) last night in their 5-1 win over the St. Louis Blues. Rob Rossi of the Tribune-Review has the scant details:

By Greg Wyshynski The Pittsburgh Penguins, facing a significant injury of their own, are in much better shape. The Penguins lost defenseman Sergei Gonchar(notes) last night in their 5-1 win over the St. Louis Blues. Rob Rossi of the Tribune-Review has the scant details:

By Sergey Zikov To start the new season, a number of potential potholes faced the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Stanley Cup Hangover. Who, us? Not on our watch, Smithy. The Four-Game Road Trip. Not a chance. No arch-rivals or Canadian visit is tripping this team up. The Powder Blue Jerseys. Hmm... When the Penguins ann...

By Steve Gorten Now, over the years there have been some accusations of Hurricanes players diving hurled by the Panthers. Olli Jokinen complained repeatedly, Jacques Martin suggested he should teach his players to dive like the Hurricanes and then of course there was the famous swan dive by Eddie Belfo...

By Nestor But remember what happened last year up in Eugene. With Masoli and Blount Ducks beat the Bruins by 7 points. They came out and blitzed us early on and went up by a score of 14-0 (man that's a tired, familiar theme for a Bruin defense), yet the Bruins even with Kevin Craft at charge had a shot in the f...

By bruinponcho Bumped. 27 more days to go. GO BRUINS. -N Rivals.com has been doing a countdown of college basketball teams. Today they got to number 30. And the 30th best team according to them is our very own UCLA Bruins. The projection: Offensively Get well JK. Go Bruins!

By Bill Tiller (Rawhide) After again watching 16 other teams compete for Lord Stanley’s Cup last spring, seeing Evander Kane taken with the fourth overall selection in the draft, learning of the trades and signings that brought players such as us Pavel Kubina and Nik Antropov, observing training camp activiti...

By Mark Ritter The Leafs will encounter some stiff competition right off the bat with games against the Montreal Canadiens, Washington Capitals, Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers to start the season. The next seven games include tilts against the Colorado Avalanche, Ran...

By Scott Weldon Pacific Division     San Jose Sharks Anaheim Ducks Dallas Stars Phoenix Coyotes 1/San Jose (1)    117                            1/ Anaheim (2)        108 2/Anaheim  (8)      91                           2/ San Jose (6)         98

By Greg Wyshynski Unless you were a reader of Inside The Kings, it's easy to assume that something will be lost in translation. Hammond didn't use his blog as a soapbox to rail against players or management; he wasn't a columnist and editorializing was never his style. The blog rose to prominence partly becau...

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By Elie Aintabi Nothing was funny about last night's game, which saw the Canadiens down walking into the third period.  This win caps off the five straight games the Habs have played, settling the preseason record at 3-2.  Three Stars 1. Brian Gionta 2. Scott Gomez Read more NHL news on BleacherReport.com

By noreply@blogger.com (Lowetide) Louise and I were talking today and she mentioned something interesting: at some point this season the Oilers are going to have to start talking about contracts for Grebeshkov and Gags/Cogs and that conversation will contain the names of two defensemen.

By Greg Wyshynski Kings Ransom" - ESPN's Wayne Gretzky Doc @ Yahoo! VideoWithout Gretzky providing much sizzle, Berg relies on several talking heads to varying degrees of effectiveness. Former Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall, one of the best, spills tantalizing back-story on the trade and Gretzky...

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By Greg Wyshynski Kings Ransom" - ESPN's Wayne Gretzky Doc @ Yahoo! VideoWithout Gretzky providing much sizzle, Berg relies on several talking heads to varying degrees of effectiveness. Former Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall, one of the best, spills tantalizing back-story on the trade and Gretzky...

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By Shane Giroux(thebatlab@gmail.com) That wasn't because I wanted Stastny to be the captain. It was simply because so many other NHL teams have recently put the C on players who have barely hit puberty, let alone figured out how to captain an NHL team. The Avalanche decided to go a new/old route and named aging vet, Adam Foote, capt...

By Caps Nut(noreply@blogger.com) Ever wonder why Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder tries to “control the message” about his football team by purchasing radio stations and forbidding twittering of his practices? Ever wonder why he doesn't grant interview requests anymore? Wonder why we refer to them as the (Com)Po...

By grantlovesbaseball(noreply@blogger.com) Me: What do the Rangers need to do to win the division this year? TR: Hank Blalock is a free agent at the end of the season. If the Rangers don’t re-sign him, I think that will take care of that issue. Me: Who do you think should be the Rangers’ closer?

The Blues also enjoyed a nice run at home, with a 23-13-5 record, and they rode a 8-1-1 home stretch to make the playoffs. However, in said playoffs they were dispatched with by the Vancouver Canucks in four games. Brad Boyes led the team with 72 ...

The last instance occurred in 1983 and 1984, as the New York Islanders made one last stand, and then succumbed to the Edmonton Oilers. In the 1983 series, the Islanders made short work of Gretzky, Messier and the rest of the high-flying Oilers, ...

Pierre McGuire has become a prominent voice in hockey through years of blunt analysis from the broadcast booth. Now he's interested in running a team himself. The Minnesota Wild are evaluating their general manager opening, and McGuire is one of the ...

Pittsburgh, PA (Sports Network) - Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist while Marc-Andre Fleury made 23 saves to help the Pittsburgh Penguins take Game 1 of their Eastern Conference final series against the Carolina Hurricanes with a 3-2 win. ...

On January 1, the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks put on quite a show during the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field. Here's hoping the teams do the same for six or seven games in the Western Conference finals. This is a good-fashioned “Original ...

By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The Hurricanes beat Boston, 3-2, in overtime in Game 7 of their second-round playoff series at the TD Banknorth Garden last night to clinch that berth. The Penguins will have home-ice advantage in the series, ...

Anaheim Mighty Ducks are actually the Anaheim Ducks now and they won a championship after shedding that stupid Disney owned image. I agree they were a team that should never have been but now that they changed owners, image, and logo, you can't really ...

By TSM “The Phoenix Coyotes filed for Chapter 11 reorganization today in a move that could allow the franchise to be sold and moved to southern Ontario, Canada.” Bingo! The condition precedent is a problem for both the Coyotes and Balsillie.

By Pookie – While killing time before the Devils game starts, we tune to the Rangers game. Sam Rosen, when reporting on the absence of Blair Betts, says, “The Rangers will be without one of their best underrated players tonight.” Boomer finishes his thought, “But no worries, their overrated players...

You still can't give a guy like [the Flames'] Jarome Iginla a free pass on a night. He's too good to give him a free pass. If you don't challenge those kind of guys, you're going to get burned. I don't think the physical play is going to stop. ... Flames-Blackhawks Game Review USA Today

By ryebreadraz The #7 Bruins finished second in their NCAA Regional to advance to last week's NCAA Championships. At those NCAA Championships, the Bruins saw their season come to an agonizing end. In the prelims, where the top three teams would advance to the finals, UCLA finished in a third place tie with...

 CA To start, my pick to win the cup this year will be the Detroit Red Wings. They are just too good, they will not be stopped this post-season, much in the same way as last year. Saying that, I do not want the Wings to repeat as Stanley Cup Champs, ...

A tower of videotapes sit by the television, past games awaiting further review by the Columbus Blue Jackets coach. Hitchcock is so focused on his team that he's become oblivious to all aspects of normal life. "The one thing you find out at this time ... Kansas City Star - Columbus Dispatch

By Matt P At first glance, he is the NHL's leader in penalty minutes. The Flyers are suffering from being penalized too much, which some homers think is a result of bias against their longstanding Bully reputation, but all of us agree has a lot to do with a lack of discipline and a tendency to take some d...

Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh: The NHL's leading scorer picked up the slack for an injured Sidney Crosby. 2. Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh: Key stops prevented Stars from getting any momentum. 3. Brooks Orpik, Pittsburgh: Strong defensive play and nine ...

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By Thomas Mackert The Buffalo Sabres are currently locked in a battle for the seventh or eighth seeds in the Eastern Conference playoff race. In this time that Regier has generously given to himself to evaluate the Sabres roster, it has allowed me the time to do the same. On that note, lets see if I could help Re...

In only his second career start, Dan LaCosta used 31 saves to record his first shutout and lead the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 3-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche at Nationwide Arena. Peter Budaj allowed three goals on 30 shots for the struggling Avalanche, who have lost two straight and six...

The Lightning led 3-0 after two periods on goals by Ryan Malone, Marty St. Louis and Vinny Lecavalier. But Malkin scored 2:25 into the third, ... Penguins hoping to end slide vs. Lightning SBR Forum United Press International - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

By PJ Swenson(jon@sharkspage.com) The first-year head coach McLellan coached the San Jose Sharks to the NHL's best record at the halfway point of the 2008-09 season, and with a 4-1 road win over Edmonton he was named as the starting coach for the Western Conference for this weekend's NHL Allstar Game in Montreal. McLellan is...

By Joe Starkey, TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, January 4, 2009 Things are going so poorly for the Penguins that Sidney Crosby picked a fight and couldn't even get his opponent to respond. A humiliating, 6-1 loss to the Florida Panthers on Saturday took a wild turn with 2:59 left in the second perio...

The Tampa Bay Lightning lost in a shoot out on a controversial call to the Colorado Avalanche 2-1. First, the controversy. Smith was called for throwing his stick in the shoot out on a shot by Hejduk. If you see the replay, it's clear that Smith didn't have a great grip on his stick and accidental...

By rss@youtube.com (nmac123) Mats Sundin will continue his NHL career with the Vancouver Canucks. Vancouver General Manager Mike Gillis announced Thursday that Sundin has signed a one-year contract with the team. "He's the total package," Gillis said in an interview on the Canucks' Web site. "He's a point-a-game guy...

By Scotty Hockey The Rangers looked pretty good in their preseason bout with the Ottawa Senators tonight and pulled out a 2-1 win. It is reason to be giddy as these guys took care of business against an opponent they were supposed to beat - Ottawa's B-team. The boys showed some good chemistry and worked hard, w...

By watchskysportsnews5032 In this review of Antigua Nashville Predators Adventure Travel Kit, I’m going to show you both the good and the bad. After all, what’sa review without some honesty, right? First, I have to tell you upfront that Antigua Nashville ...

By hoopsjunky There were a lot of good things to like about the Canucks' 6-2 win over the Nashville Predators. They played, perhaps, one of their most complete games of the season and six different guys scored. Most importantly, they overtook the Predators and put themselves back in a playoff position. Un...