Hockeyhead

Judging by Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers’ 31-save performance last night, you could wonder why it was the first time he started in 36 games.  Of course, the Oilers have little to play for, other than dousing the Flames’ chances of capturing the Northwest Division title.  In the words of Howard Berger: why weren’t they playing like this when it mattered… last week?

The Canucks can wrap-up the division with a victory over the Avalanche tonight, while the Flames need to beat the Oilers in Calgary and hope Roberto Luongo somehow shits the bed.  The Canuck bandwagon is getting full, climb on.

Blues and Ducks Secure Playoff Spots

I’m dumbfounded, not that St. Louis squeaked out a playoff birth, but that the Nashville Predators failed to turn it on at season’s end and crawl in.  The rotund Barry Trotz has a recipe for success, unfortunately for he and the Preds it doesn’t involve starting the season well or competing before February.  I hate the Ducks, they’re a joke, and the joke is on Emilio Estevez.

Peter Pocklington was good at ruining things; the great Oilers of the 1980’s, a couple failed “entrepreneur” ventures, and my childhood.  The man that once sold Wayne Gretzky to disgraced former L.A. Kings Owner Bruce McNall was arrested on Wednesday by FBI agents at his rented condo in Palm Desert, California.  His bail was set at a lofty $1 million because he was deemed a flight risk, so who would bail this man out you ask?  That would be his old buddy Glen Sather.  Wow, as if Slats’ reputation needed a tarnishing right now.

Trying to sort through the details of his arrest is a whole other story.  What is known is that Peter Puck filed for bankruptcy last August claiming debts somewhere in the $20 million range.  There seemed to be quite a disparity between that figure and his personal assets, prompting a federal investigation.  Calling Pocklington a liar and a cheat would be an understatement, he was referred to as a “professional con artist” in a U.S. court filing a year ago, that might be a little more precise.

I can’t believe I’m actually here writing about this, I could care less if Pocklington rotted for the rest of his life in a Thai prison, but Sather’s involvement makes it hockey-news worthy… right?

Anyway, TSN did a good job of laying out some of Puck’s evil business misdealing of the 1980’s here.  As one can imagine, a shit-bag of Pocklington’s magnitude probably has an even sleazier lawyer.  Check out this doozy of a quote from his tax lawyer, Michael Lusby:

I can’t believe what’s been done to him - it’s just crazy… The political climate in this country is such that you can indict a ham sandwich.”

A ham sandwich, yeah, a ham sandwich.  No one is going to lose respect for Pocklington in this case because it’s unlikely he ever had any in the first place.  Don’t cry for him, he’s already dead.  Sather on the other hand needs a good shaking.

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For all those dickless suit-wearing assholes that plan on booing Mats Sundin when he returns to the ACC in Toronto tonight, you should be ashamed of yourselves.  I mean c’mon, the guy gave your lifeless team 13 years of his life and never once did he complain when management repeatedly stumbled to build a winner around him, or when Doug Gilmour, Phil Housley, and Ron Francis were brought in well past their collective prime for a “Cup run”.

Sundin defended himself in this morning’s Toronto Star, which he shouldn’t have to do in the first place:

I honestly don’t understand it, this (accusation) of being a traitor. I certainly don’t look at myself that way. When I stayed with the team at the deadline, it was because I didn’t think it was appropriate for the captain to leave. We were still fighting for a playoff spot and I honestly believed, at that point, it could happen.”

The only traitors in this situation are the back-stabbing fans that are going to boo their once celebrated hero, rather than stand up and applaud the guy for keeping a franchise relevant while management had failed to.

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It’s been a tough couple of days for ol’ hockeyhead.  A massive power-outage in the center of the universe (Toronto), really struck a decisive blow to my capacity to blog.  You can take away my electricity and heat, but don’t take me internet away.

I’m in Ottawa for the weekend, so I’ll arbitrarily be following the Canadiens visiting the Senators. 

The Maple Leafs will not be in action tonight, which is a shame as I was following a developing story involving Ian White when my power went down. 

White’s duster can no longer go unmentioned.  From here on, that mustache shall be credited with an assist on White’s goals for the duration of its existence.

Sometimes I sit around and think about what my life would look like as a TV Show.  You know, me and my buds sitting around with a few beers, possibly stoned, and opening packs of hockey cards.

I was surprised when I discovered that a show of this magnitude already existed on the web.  As one dimensional as The Hockey Card Show may sound, it’s actually a refreshing blast of nostalgia.  Check it.

The Red Wings visit San Jose tonight.  If I had a choice in my viewing tonight this game would be it.  The West’s best square off with a 10:30PM ET start time.  I’ll take the Sharks in a close one. 

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SL

The Montreal Canadiens will be in for a change of pace when they face the highly skilled Washington Capitals tonight.  The Habs are coming off of a decisive victory over the lowly Leafs on Thursday, and will need to keep their offense rolling to stave off Ovechkin and the Caps.

Washington had their seven game win streak snapped at the hands of Steve Mason and the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night.  They will be in tough again tonight, as Montreal has won eight of their last ten games.  Alex Ovechkin will be looking for some redemption against the team that had three players finish ahead of him in All-Star voting (Alex Kovalev, Alex Tanguay, and Saku Koivu).

Expect the boo-birds to be out in full-force when Jose Theodore takes to the ice.  In their last meeting on November 28th in Washington, Theodore shut out his former team 3-0 making 26 saves.  Jaroslav Halak is likely to get the call in goal for Montreal as Carey Price is still nursing a “lower-body” injury.

The puck drops in Montreal at 7:00 PM ET.

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Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports

Sidney Crosby never stops, all he needs is the odd splash of Gatorade.  Rather than flexing his normal scoring prowess on this regular Saturday afternoon he chose to pump some fists in the face of Brett McLean.

Although the Florida Panthers absolutely spanked the Penguins 6-1, Crosby managed to get the crowd back into the game before the end of the second period.  Too bad Florida went on to score two more goals, but hey, you have to hand it to the oft-criticized Crosby for drawing some blood.

Following the game Crosby stated that he had asked McLean if he wanted to “go”, and that the former had accepted the challenge.  McLean and his teammates had some rather choice words for Sid.  Veteran defenseman and resident dickhead Bryan McCabe had this to say;

“You don’t jump a guy while his head’s down taking a face-off, that’s pretty immature and childish.”

Take a look, you be the judge.

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Pittsburgh rolls into State rivalry Philadelphia… this afternoon.  The league’s number 1 and 2 leading scorers, Crosby and Malkin make interesting afternoon television, as does 20 goal scorer Jeff Carter.  Take it in if you can, the quality of tonight’s games drops off substantially after this one.  Puck drops at 1:00pm.

For the first time in a long time, the Toronto Maple Leafs will not play on a Saturday night.  It’s funny that the schedule unequivocally favors them year after year by almost guaranteeing a home game on Saturdays.  Did anyone see Brian Burke put that weasel Steve Kouleas in his place on The Score’s Hardcore Hockey Talk?  I too am one to scrutinize the track record of Mr. Burke, but Kouleas had nothing; he resorted to questioning Burke’s motivation behind the Kevin Lowe fights, Burke told him he doesn’t care about his opinion.  Thanks Brian.

An injury depleted Montreal Canadians team will welcome the Washington Capitals, the Caps are rolling as of late and lighting up their opponents at will.  Don’t know about you, but I want to see Washington’s website goalie face some NHL action!

The struggling New York Islanders play the Blue Jackets tonight in Columbus.  Columbus is better than their record dictates, and the Islanders have been taking some beatings over the last week.  The Isles placed winger Jon Sim on waivers this week, he was not claimed and you could see him back in their lineup tonight.  Sim has scored in bunches everywhere he has played outside of the NHL.  A waiver scare might give him the spark to light his underrated offensive talent.

In an expansion battle of NHLPA Hockey ‘93, Ottawa plays host to Tampa Bay.