In honor of the Devil’s Martin Brodeur and his 500th win the other night, here’s a YouTube selection of some of the goalie’s best moments:
From the Stanley Cup Finals of 2000. Dallas was trying to repeat, the Devils were having none of it. I love this video because it shows just how good Mike Modano can be and how good Brett Hull was. But Brodeur was better.
Not only can he stop them, he can score them! Brodeur scores what I think is his first NHL goal here. The goal itself is one of the nicest goalie-goals I’ve seen, not touching the ice until it’s past the red-line. And while you can’t see Brodeur’s face too clearly, he looks pretty darn pleased with himself.
Right up to his 500th win, Brodeur was making those incredible saves. Check out:
Rapid fire drill, All-Star game 1999. I was lucky enough to see this live. Bonus: Close up of the Jagr mullet.
Sean Avery bowls over Brodeur. Brodeur won’t stand for it and goes after Avery, and complete and total chaos erupts. His teammates rush in to help out, but I think Brodeur would have liked to have taken care of Avery all on his own.
Still not sure what this is, but it’s nice to see Brodeur doing his best to keep the fans amused. Scratch “Russian dancing” off his list of talents though.
They weren’t all good goals. Marty managed to pot one on himself in a rare misstep in the 2003 Stanley Cup finals.
But mostly, he is busy making saves like this. Enjoy.
Going Five Hole’s post on the NHL Officials Association site got me thinking about that age old incident between the New Jersey Devils‘ head coach Jim Schoenfeld and NHL ref Don Koharski.
To refresh your memory, during the 1988 playoffs, Koharski was reffing a game between the Boston Bruins and New Jersey Devils. Schoenfeld was less than impressed with the quality of the officiating and waited for Koharski after the the game to “discuss” the matter with Koharski. Their discussion disintegrated into a screaming match with Schoenfeld eventually shoving Koharski (ok, it does look like Koharski tripped, but that’s been debated to death, and it’s more fun to say he was shoved) and uttering the now famous “you fat pig”, quickly followed by the even more famous “have another doughnut”.
Naturally, because this is the NHL, everything was caught by nearby cameras:
The NHL suspended Schoenfeld, but he was re-instated after the Devils got a court-order. As a result, NHL referees stood by Koharski and boycotted the playoff game. The league had to use replacement officials for the game.
As silly as our refs can be, at least the NHL has never had to deal with an NBA-type ref scandal. Yet.
And of course, the incident was immortalized in the movie Wayne’s World, with a character called Officer Koharski (police… doughnuts… c’mon it’s funny!).
Ottawa continues to own the east with nine wins. Detroit has the same in the west.
At the other end of the spectrum, Atlanta has surged to win three games, tying them with follow bottom feeder Phoenix. And it only took Atlanta 11 games to do it!
Every team in the Northeast Division is .500 or better, with only the Sabres sitting right on the .500 mark.
Islanders, Lightning, Coyotes and Blues have all played only 9 games, while Anaheim leads the league at 13 games played.
Washington and Florida are ahead of New Jersey and the NY Rangers. Who says parity is dead? There’s no such phenomenon in the west… everyone is well ahead of Phoenix and Nashville, surprising no one.
Elsewhere in the NHL:
To most it’s just a Sunday night matchup between two struggling teams, but to the Ducks and the Oilers it’s another chapter in the feud between their respective GMs. Give this round to the Oilers. Of course, the focus was on Dustin Penner. His comments and attitude in the story are actually pretty classy. The bonus was that GM Brian Burke presented Penner with his Stanley Cup ring in the GM’s office after the game. Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall for that little scene?
Bruins fans are a hardy folk, how else could they get through so many seasons of misery with barely a whimper? The latest in their string of misfortunes, the injury of Patrice Bergeron — one of the few bright lights in the Bruins organization — might be less serious than previously thought as Bergeron was released from the hospital Sunday. Tests showed no injury to Bergeron’s head and neck.
Plus a big congrats to the Boston Red Sox on their World Series win!
ESPN’s second power rankings of the season are up. No surprises here, though I think the Penguins-love is a little heavy. 5th overall for a .500 team? Ranked ahead of 3-1-0 teams like the Flyers and Lightning? I know all it takes is Sid the Kid to kick start his game and the Penguins are right back in the top 5, but it hasn’t happened yet.
***
A quick look at the NHL standings shows some interesting things:
Minnesota remains the only team unbeaten in regulation.
At the other end of the spectrum, at 0-6-0 Atlanta has yet to register a single point in the standings. Those of you with bets over the first coach fired should start looking at who has poor Bob Hartley.
Philadelphia is the only Atlantic Division team over .500. Both the Northeast and Southeast divisions have 3 teams over .500.
Los Angeles has allowed the most goals in the league (30). Toronto is a close second at 29.
Toronto also has scored the most goals in the league (26)
Anaheim has played twice as many games (8) as Pittsburgh, Tampa, St. Louis and Columbus.
New Jersey and Boston have yet to play a home game. Every team in the league has played a road game.
Notable moves and changes:Signed F Dainius Zubrus (was with Washington). Named Brent Sutter head coach. Starting goalie: Martin Brodeur Summary of last year: It’s usually more of a surprise when the Devils DON’T take 1st in the Atlantic Division, and last year was no different. As always, the consistent play of Brodeur was a key reason — it’s gotten to the point where fans just expect Brodeur to be nothing less than the best goalie in the league. Prediction for this year: The Devils suffered some key losses in the off-season — notably Scott Gomez and Brian Rafalski. The core of the team remains strong and the addition of a Sutter in the coaching role is almost always a good thing. This will likely still be a year of adjustment for the Devils, though hopefully they’ll have at least a year to adjust. ‹insert joke about GM Lou Lamoriello’s tendency to fire coaches right before the playoffs here›.
Wow. I am not sure that there is a whole lot more to say besides wow. It’s just wow. The Buffalo Sabres proved that they are a better hockey team, hands down. They out-played the Rangers and won the series 4-2, winning both game 5 and game 6 to take the series 4-2. But there is no question that the Rangers played as best they could and made sure that Buffalo had to work hard to get the win. For those who missed Game 5, the Rangers had a 1-0 lead until the last 7 seconds of the game. The Rangers iced the puck and had to take the faceoff in their own zone. The Sabres scored to tie the game and then won it in OT. Game 6 had a much different feel. The Rangers took an early lead into the locker room after the first intermission but then came out for a disastrous middle frame. After 2, Buffalo led 4-2. They would eventually win 5-4. (more…)
The Senators beat the Devils last night, by 1 goal yet again. This series has been pretty much decided by one goal over each game thus far. But the Devils have not been able to get past the Senators at all. New Jersey just cannot put together a game that will get past Ottawa because they are too weak a team. Brodeur puts them in the driver’s seat but when he is up against the same quality day after day he starts to get into trouble. Ottawa is stacked with goal scorers and they will put the puck in the net. The Devils really cannot counter that.
Detroit insists on making things interesting. Now, I will admit that I didn’t see all of this game because it started too late and I have to be up too early but I’m wishing that I had. The Red Wings scored a goal with 5 seconds left in the second and then with 33 seconds left in the third to tie the game at 2. They finally put the game away with 4 minutes left in the first OT period, beating the San Jose Sharks to tie the series at 2 games each. Nabokov stopped 46 shots and that’s the main problem that he’s facing — his defense needs to keep Detroit from pounding the net. If they can’t do that, then Detroit will eventually just overpower the Sharks and take the series.
Breaking down the Trophies I will take these 1 per day, instead of as originally planned. So today we look at the Calder Trophy for Rookie of the Year. Finalists:
Evgeni Malkin (Pit)
Jordan Staal (Pit)
Paul Stastny (Col)
Jordan Staal led the Penguins with a +16, and also led the three finalists. However, he is also 3rd in points (under 50, for a center is troubling). His teammate Evgeni Malkin leads the three, and all rookies with 85 points. Stastny is safe as the middle for most categories. He also has the advantage to not being on the same team as Sidney Crosby, who causes everyone to be overshadowed. Who should win: Malkin Who will Win: Stastny
On Sunday, NBC had some interesting coverage in between periods and the OT of the Rangers-Sabres game. They talked about what food was brought in for the teams. So all of you who want to be catering director for a hockey team, you got a bit of information on what to bring in when a hockey game goes into extra periods (bananas and sandwhiches in case you missed it).
New Jersey lost to the Senators last night with Brodeur playing well in goal. Only him though; as the Devils played a sloppy and uncoordinated game. If not for the amazing play of their goalie, they’d have been taken out of the game much earlier and would have lost by a lot more than 2 goals given up in the third. The Devils cannot play another game like that if they want to survive.
One of the big questions that has been floating around since the series was announced was: how would Detroit perform in the Shark Tank? Last night we got the answer. They didn’t do too poorly. Even though the Red Wings lost, they held a lead for almost 20 minutes. They survived as they needed to do. San Jose will make this a series and this may be an instant classic, but home ice will not be as potent here as some people thought. However, as an aside, what is going on with the glass at the Tank? It needed to be replaced all too often (more than 1x per game is too often). That situation needs to be looked at. It would also be nice if the games were a little earlier — not too much but maybe a half hour. As it is, it’s hard for us on the east coast make it all the way through.
Now here’s what you need to know: Ryan Miller was amazing on Sunday. Don’t let the loss fool you, he played amazingly. He kept the Sabres in the game and was pushed beyond anything that you can imagine. The Rangers had 46 shots on goal and with the exception of the second period, was at least even with or outshot the Sabres in EVERY period. Buffalo was not on their game — they did not play as well as they had in the first two. Now they can give up all 3 games at Madison Square Garden and still win the series if they want. But if they do that, if they can’t win one game on the road in this series, then they will be facing serious problems in the next round.
Detroit is in trouble. The series is tied 1-1 and game three is tonight at the Shark Pond. But when you watch them play, it is clear that the dominance from the first series is somewhat lost. I might have to rethink my pick for this round. If the Red Wings want to get past the Sharks, they will need to perform much better than they have thus far.
Ottawa is one of the best teams in the league and they may have figured Martin Brodeur out. If this is true, this series will be done soon. If not, then I suspect that it’s only a matter of time.
The Anaheim/Vancouver series looks like it will be the best series of this round.
I have been raving and raving about Detroit since the playoffs started, talking about how great they’ve been. Well last night they were pretty weak. Their 2-0 loss to the Sharks was more than just an opening game loss. The crisp, disciplined, well-structured play that they had demonstrated in the opening round was lacking last night. The Red Wings couldn’t stop the early onslaught that was the Sharks and they couldn’t break the conservative possession game that San Jose played late. Detroit looked amazing in the first round but they lost some of their magic last night.
San Jose was the 5-seed in the playoffs, but don’t let that fool you. They were only 5 points below Detroit, AND they had more wins (51-50) in the regular season. They also had more regular season losses (26-19) but fewer overtime losses (13-5). The Sharks have a real chance, and I’ll admit it right now, I might have missed it.
Ottawa and the Devils played an interesting little game, with Brodeur’s magic fading. Giving up 4 goals in the first period — that’s very un-Marty-like. But I’ll be honest, let’s call this game an anomaly and see what happens in game 2. I would be very surprised if they don’t rebound. Ottawa may have led 4-1 after the first 20 minutes (and at no point did they trail), but they won’t be able to keep it up. New Jersey (whom I have called a one-dimensional team in the past) will manage to put together a few more wins and the Marty Magic will come back. This will be a series to watch though.
The Rangers skate against Buffalo again tonight, and the Ducks face off against Vancouver for game two.
And finally, my quote of the day comes from this past weekend. I was in Tucson with my fiance and we were watching the Travel Channel (her favorite). The program was about how goldfish were made and someone from the factory gave us this gem: “The best part is trying the finished product at the end.” My only question is can you try the finished product at any other time? If it were finished in the middle, why keep going?
Buffalo vs New York Rangers
Season Series: Buffalo won 4-0
It’s very easy to look at the season series and say that the Sabres will dominate the upcoming playoff series. But as has been discussed here, Lundqvist only played in one game (which was lost 3-2 in OT). Kevin Weekes was the goalie in the other 3 games (as an aside, a new backup goalie needs to be something that the Rangers need to look for in the offseason). Weekes has shown that he can be dominated by a team of mites, so the fact that Buffalo owned him is not as impressive as one would think.
Here’s the reality of the series though — Henrik Lundqvist is the backbone of the Rangers and Buffalo is Just That Good. Lundqvist will keep his team in the series but Buffalo will win it.
My pick: Buffalo in 6
New Jersey vs Ottawa
Season Series: New Jersey won 3-1
In the Eastern Conference, no playoff team had fewer goals in the regular season. And no team had fewer goals against. In fact, at 216 goals, there are only 5 teams in the entire NHL that have fewer goals scored. Of course, with 201 goals allowed, they are the top team in the Eastern Conference in that category. Ottawa, on the other hand is #2 in the league in goals scored with 288. So it becomes a question of who gets to play their game — Ottawa or New Jersey. New Jersey needs to light the lamp if they want to be successful in this series. In all three of their victories, the Devils won by a single goal. In their only loss, they lost by 7. Does NJ have a chance here? Yes. Will they pull it off? No. Ottawa is just too good.
My Pick: Ottawa in 7
Detroit vs. San Jose
Season Series: San Jose won 3-1
Evgeni Nabokov vs. Dominik Hasek. What’s not to like about this series? This has the potential to be an amazing defensive series with two of the league’s best netminders facing off. Both teams are going to be looking for big defensive efforts and both teams will be looking to their offense to produce big numbers. In the first round, San Jose played will, but Detroit had a clinic going against the Flames. They are just too hot to be stopped.
My Pick: Detroit in 5
Anaheim vs. Vancouver
Season Series: Anaheim won 3-1 (1 OT Loss)
The Canucks just finished an intense 7 game series against Dallas which included 6 OT sessions, and the Ducks are nicely rested. They have a deep bench and some of the biggest names in hockey today suiting up in their locker room. The X-Factor here is how tired Vancouver is — will they be wired and riding momentum or will they be tired and ready to lay down. This one could go 7, but won’t.
My Pick: Anaheim in 6
I complained a bit yesterday about the times of today’s games. Well the NHL has corrected the error and now the games are on at 7PM & 10PM ET. I love these hockey double-headers.
I will start by giving credit where credit is due. Versus did a great job this weekend, showing so many games. Call it bonus coverage all you want, I think they deserve a pat on the back. I hope they continue the trend.
There is only one game on tonight, and it’s game 7. Vancouver will skate at home against Dallas for all the marbles. Puck drops at 9 ET. This is the final game of the first round and we go to the next round, which I will break down tomorrow.
This weekend we saw New Jersey, San Jose, Detroit and Buffalo move on to the second round. New Jersey put Tampa Bay away for the season which was not unexpected and San Jose was dominant in their series. Neither series generated much news. However, The Isles and the Flames went out with news clips:
The Isles had a defenseman suspended under the league’s drug policy. Now, I don’t think that the loss of Sean Hill led to the defeat of the Isles in the series — the reality is that they were just completely outplayed. But how stupid do you have to be to do anything that jeopardizes your team during the playoffs? Hill had a 1 year contract, so he is now a free agent. We won’t see him back in Isles Blue.
The Flames Goalie got the gate We’ll start with See Above and move on from there. Now granted, it’s Jamie McLennan who is the backup goalie, but you still need to make sure that you aren’t doing anything stupid. The game got out of control, and everyone go frustrated. I get that, it happens. The game was lost 5-1. But in the playoffs you need to play smarter. It’s the playoffs. It’s a disappointment.
With a little Moody Blues to get us going, we start with 2 more teams advancing to the second round.
Ottawa 3, Pittsburgh 0
Ottawa wins the series 4-1. I will have more to say on this next week, but what it comes down to is the reality that you can’t deny — Ottawa is a great team and they will continue to be a great team. Pittsburgh is good and young, so this won’t be their last playoff run, but they met a team that is just better this year.
Anaheim 4, Minnesota 1
Anaheim takes the series 4-1. The Ducks are a powerful team and they pretty well bulldozed the Wild. Look for them to be a scary force for their next round.
We can also add 1 more OT period to our count from the Dallas-Vancouver game. The Stars won the game 1-0 in the first overtime.
What does this weekend hold?
Buffalo will try to finish the Islanders off tonight. If they lose tonight, they’ll get another chance on Sunday. Unfortunately for my Isles, Buffalo will win tonight at home. The series that I want to see is Buffalo-Ottawa right now.
Tampa Bay skates in New Jersey tonight and at home on Sunday. The series is tied 2-2 so the winner of tonight’s game has a huge advantage.
San Jose is in Nashville tonight and will try to finish off their series. The Sharks have been pretty dominant in this series and they should wrap it up tonight.
The Rangers won their series last night, thus making them the first team to move to the second round. Because of the re-seed, they will wait until a couple of other series end before learning their second round opponent. My fiance is a Rangers fan (mainly so she can annoy me) and she was having a little fun with this. It ruined my mood though. Where did the Thrashers go wrong? They were out-played in every aspect of the series. Look back at Game 3, where they lost 7-0. There are two things to see here — the first is that the Rangers scored 7 goals. It’s not a goalie problem when the score is that high, it’s a total team problem. The Rangers had 35 shots and outshot the Thrashers in every period — including a 9-3 final period. The Rangers were clearly the better team, as much as it pains me to say it.
Add 1 to our overtime count as the Devils beat the Lightning 4-3. Tampa Bay is holding their own much better than Atlanta did, against a tougher opponent as well. The Thrashers and the Lightning were fighting for the top spot in the Southeast Division and we have to question if the right team won at the end of the day. Tampa Bay had goals from both St. Louis and LeCavalier, and if they want to win the series, they will need some more production from them.
Buffalo beat the Islanders 4-2. The Sabres still have to win 1 more game but they’ve won the series, having won both of the first 2 games in Uniondale. The series will move back to Buffalo for game 5, and I predict the Sabres will win it. The Sabres are looking amazing this year and have what it takes to go to the Conference finals if they play right. Meanwhile, the Isles cannot seem to get past the first round of the playoffs. It would appear that they are still missing one element, one piece, to get them to the next level.
San Jose beat Nashville 3-2. The Sharks are one win away from moving on to the next round and I don’t think they’ll have much problem getting there. The score was close but the game wasn’t really — San Jose has been outplaying the Predators in pretty much every way.
By the end of the weekend, we should see a few series wrapped up.
A note: I am on the West Coast tomorrow, so my post may go up a bit late.
Eastern Conference:
Buffalo leads the Islanders 2-1
Tampa Bay leads New Jersey 2-1
Rangers lead Atlanta 2-0
Ottawa leads Pittsburgh 2-1
Western Conference
Detroit leads Calgary 2-0
Anaheim leads Minnesota 3-0
Vancouver leads Dallas 2-1
San Jose leads Nashville 2-1
Anaheim could sweep the series tonight, but I doubt it.
So here is my newest feature, the Overtime Count.
To date, there have been 7 overtime periods, and all have been in the Western Conference.
As we start looking at the end of the North American hockey seasons; last night, the AIHL started up their 2007 season with Melbourne dominating Adelaide 6-1. Canberra was also victorious, taking the win from the Brisbane Blue Toungues 5-2.
Finally, a mea culpa. Many thanks to Lyndsey who pointed out that it was Buffalo, not Detroit who won the President’s Cup, despite what I wrote in my previous posting. I have no good excuse except that I had a very long day including hitting two Napa Valley vineyards for wine tastings and a 2 hour drive. I will be more studious in the future and make sure to error-check myself.
Ponds and Pucks is a look at the world of hockey, focusing on the NHL. Looking at the news both on and off the ice, this site provides a no-holds-barred honest view of everything.
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