Alright, this week I’m a little bias because I’ve been following a lot of the action in the NZIHL. Although the Stamps didn’t play this week, I felt the need to honour them with their logo and jersey.
First off, I am a huge fan of blue. And in particular this version of blue. Blue might be used an awful lot in hockey threads but this one is bright enough to catch your attention and not end up dull. The contrasting yellow makes it even easier on the eyes. Yellow in general, I don’t like as a team colour but the Stampede make it work. (Hello Sweden, I know you proudly make it work too.)
I don’t know if it’s just being used to North American hockey (besides the LNAH) but I’m glad there’s not a lot of advertising all over this. Now don’t get me wrong, I understand the important of advertising and why it’s needed. But when I see some Russian teams starting to look like a walking billboard in Times Square, it’s a little much.
The logo itself is spot on. Hell, it gives the Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders a run for its money. Could even replace it in my opinion. There are some very talented people down in New Zealand and the rest of the world needs to start taking notice.
As Cornwall River Kings draft pick Jonathan Zion announced that he had signed overseas for the upcoming season, I was naturally interested to see where he was headed. Off the top of my head, I was thinking he’s most likely gone to the U.K. and suit up for some team in the EIHL.
Boy, was I wrong.
Zion signed up with the Destil Trappers of the Eredivisie, a.k.a, the Dutch Hockey League. As I’m intrigued by non-traditional hockey markets lately, it persuaded me to look into it’s history a little bit.
Believe it or not, the Dutch league was formed after World War 2 with only 3 teams based in Amsterdam, The Hague and Tilburg (where Zion’s Trappers are located presently). The league currently houses 7 teams and have been notable spots for NHLers such as John Wensink, Karl Dykhuis and the late Fred Shero. From what I understand it’s a very tight and competitive league, one that I’m sure Zion will be glad with his decision. The Tilburg Trappers are 12 time league champions and have won 13 National championships. The team is also headed into it’s astonishing 75th season.
It’s so nice to see the greatest game on earth being played all over the world. Be on the look out as I profile some more leagues that take place in not so traditional hockey markets. I mean, did you know that Thailand, Kuwait and South Africa all have National teams? You do now.
Painting ice gone wrong. Hey kids, how would you like to skate on frozen pee? The Nashville Predators have dyed their ice yellow, or maybe gold (hell, I’m colorblind) , for an open house this weekend. Don’t worry though, hockey fans, they won’t be playing games on that.
In the only series being played this weekend in the New Zealand Ice Hockey League, the Southern Stampede travel down to Avondale to take on the West Auckland Admirals.
The Admirals are coming off of a 2 game loss (including a confrontation with the TKRT Tropthy) to the Canterbury Red Devils on their last weekend set in Christchurch. They will hope to be ready to play against the opposing Stamps. Nick Henderson will be looking to add to his team leading goals as he enters this weekend’s showdown.
The Southern Stampede however have not played since June 29th. On that date they fell to the Botany Swarm by a score of 10-6 in front of a hometown crowd. Will the time off prepare them for their clash with the Admirals or will it have turned into a disadvantage? Only time will tell. Matt Schneider who sits second in the league with goals scored and 4th in the league in points will try to add to his streak to sit on top. Mike McRae will also look to add to his point total to move up a notch with the league leaders.
The Stampede and Admirals both sit at the bottom of the standings in 4th and 5th place respectively. With that being said, don’t count out the Stampede. They’re very much still in the running as spots 1 through 3 are in a tight race. With two wins this weekend, the Stampede could very well see themselves tied for 3rd place.
Get down to the Paradice Avondale this weekend for some sure to be hard-hitting and talented hockey. Puck drops at 5pm local time.
The Newcastle North Stars were formed in 1981 and joined the AIHL in 2002 as an expansion team. As most expansion teams do, they suffered a hard year with their first in the league.
However the next year proved to be successful as they added Rob Barnes, a former European coach and imported Canadian player Ray Sheffield. With these additions, the North Stars captured their first Goodall Cup.
In total Newcastle are 4 time Goodall Cup champions and 3 time H Newman Reid Champions. They also hold the record for most goals scored in one game with 21. The North Stars have had plenty of overseas talent join their roster over the years including former member of the Wichita Thunder, Brad Wanchulak and former Nepean Raider, Trevor Hawkins.
Newcastle’s next game is July 13th as they take on the Perth Thunder. Puck drop is 5pm local time!
I was reading an article on a Yahoo hockey blog about the possibility of the Canadian Hockey League banning European imports and it got me thinking.
The man of question in this article is Alexei Dementiev; a former Nashville Predators scout turned hockey agent. According to him and things that he’s heard is that the CHL is moving to ban all import players from playing in the league. The earlier ruling of the banning of import goaltenders is just the start.
I am Canadian. I understand how important hockey is to this country. I also understand the scrutiny our players are under when they compete. Be it junior hockey, national level or international level, everyone is under the eye of the nation. What I don’t understand is if the CHL thinks that our hockey playing abilities are not up to par, goaltending or otherwise, how is it the fault of import players?
The only way you get better is to play against better players. It’s as simple as that and that goes for any sport. You want our goaltending to be amazing at an international level at the World Juniors? Easy. Have goaltenders face players with impeccable and hard to stop shots. European, Russian, Canadian, South African, doesn’t matter! If they can play the game at a superior level, it’s only going to help your development.
European and Russian players come to the CHL because of the talent in the league. So what if they go back to their home countries when their junior career is over. The next generation is just waiting behind them for their chance. It helps everyone develop and take that next step in their hockey careers.
I really hope this is not the case with the Canadian Hockey League. I’ll be really dissapointed if it is.
After letting the dust settle on Ilya Kovalchuk’s “retirement” and reading different stories and opinions, I have made some conclusions.
First, both team and player are better off with Kovalchuk moving on. The Devils no longer have to deal with Kovy’s heavily front-loaded contract and cap hit, and Ilya can make huge dollars in the KHL and be with his family.
Secondly, although the Devils now find themselves with cap space, finding someone to replace the holes left by Kovalchuk and Zach Parise last summer is a whole new challenge on its own.
GM Lou Lamiorello has limited options in terms of what he can do to improve his hockey club. The free agent market has all but dried up unless you want to overpay for one of Jaromir Jagr or Brendan Morrow, or take a chance on guys like Damien Brunner, Mikhail Grabovski or Brad Boyes. All of these players would be nice additions, however none will bring nearly as much to the table offensively as Kovalchuk did.
Additionally, the trade market has lost some steam, as many teams have made their big moves and are now waiting for training camp to start before re-evaluating and tweaking their rosters. This makes life tough on Uncle Lou, since acquiring a high-scoring forward in a tapped out and idle market can be somewhat of a challenge. Obviously, by saying “somewhat of a challenge” I mean damn near impossible, especially with the prospect pool (or lack thereof) that the Devils have to dangle as trade bait. The only young players that will bring in any significant return are Adam Henrique, Andrei Loktionov and Adam Larsson. Loktionov might be movable if packaged, but Henrique and Larsson are the future in Newark and it would take a pretty penny to pry them fro Lamiorello’s fingers.
So, what do the Devils do? Amidst all this talk of Kovalchuk, people seemed to forget that New Jersey has 2 starting goaltenders. One has stopped more rubber than any goaltender in the last 5 years and one has stopped more than any goaltender of all time. This makes for a problem that any GM would love to have.
After crunching some numbers, I compared both goalies’ stats to those of other elite goalies of the last 5 years. The results are in order as follows:
GAA:
1. Cory Schneider, 2.20
2. Henrik Lundqvist, 2.24
3. Jonathan Quick, 2.31
4. Antti Niemi, 2.34
T4. Martin Brodeur, 2.34
6. Pekka Rinne, 2.36
7. Roberto Luongo, 2.38
8. *Corey Crawford, 2.39
9. Marc-Andre Fleury, 2.49
10. Ryan Miller, 2.51
11. Carey Price, 2.56
SV%:
1. Cory Schneider, 0.927
2. Henrik Lundqvist, 0.923
3. Pekka Rinne, 0.919
T3. Roberto Luongo, 0.919
T3. Ryan Miller, 0.919
6. Antti Niemi, 0.917
7. Jonathan Quick, 0.915
8. *Corey Crawford, 0.913
T8. Marc-Andre Fleury, 0.913
10. Martin Brodeur, 0.910
11. Carey Price, 0.908
*I put Crawford in here because he recently won the Stanley Cup and is comparable in age and style to Schneider; however, he has only played 4 seasons in the NHL.
Please note that these are not the top ranked goaltenders total, they are the top ranked goalies who are supposed to be elite and have all seen playoff action at least once in the past 5 seasons.
Obviously, Schneider tops these lists, and in GAA has distanced himself from the pack. The only netminder with numbers even close to his belong to Henrik Lundqvist, and we all know what Lundqvist brings to the Rangers.
What I’m trying to prove with all of this, is that the Devils really don’t need to hang on to Marty Brodeur if they can find someone who could use a veteran goalie and can spare some firepower.
(Photo: sports.msn.ca)
There are a couple of teams who come to mind, but the highest bidders, should Marty become available, should be Edmonton, Florida and Philadelphia. It wouldn’t hurt for Colorado or the New York Islanders to get in on Brodeur as well. So now that we have a small number of possible teams, what could each of them send to New Jersey in order to acquire the legendary future hall-of-famer?
Before we start, it should be noted that Martin Brodeur carries a NTC and would have to be consulted before a trade could be approved.
Here goes:
Edmonton:
It’s no secret that the Oilers have serious forward depth, since they’ve used multiple recent first overall picks to select only elite scorers. This year, they’ve changed their ways a bit and drafted Darnell Nurse and signed former Bruin Andrew Ference to solidify the back end. The biggest question mark? Goaltending. Oil brass has believed in Devan Dubnyk and see him as the future in goal. However, He has struggled to find his game with a lack of defensive support and a revolving door of backup goaltenders, none of whom have been able to steer him in the right direction. This is where Marty comes in. I don’t need to sit here and list Brodeur’s accomplishments to convince anyone he would be a good choice, but Edmonton seems like a perfect fit. He would be considered a 1b, similar to his current status and would be able to help a young team make the playoffs. So, what do the Oilers send to Jersey?
Edmonton gets:
G Martin Brodeur
New Jersey gets:
C Sam Gagner
G Olivier Roy
2014 2nd round pick
This trade gives Edmonton a legendary goalie to win some games and increase Devan Dubnyk’s development, while New Jersey provides Sam Gagner a place to be the go-to guy.
Florida:
It is no secret that the Panthers are desperate to upgrade in goal, after spending the last 2 years in and out of negotiations to bring in Roberto Luongo. Jacob Markstrom is the future, but just isn’t quite there yet and Jose Theodore is not only over the hill, but he’s made it to the bottom on the other side. With the free agent market tapped of goaltenders, the Panthers will need to explore trade options if they intend to put someone in front of Markstrom. Here is my hypothetical deal:
Florida gets:
G Martin Brodeur
New Jersey gets:
C Drew Shore
LW Sean Bergenheim
2014 1st round pick
Brodeur in a Panthers uniform makes them a playoff team again. Shore is expendable with the recent drafting of Alexsander Barkov and Bergenheim provides some secondary scoring, while the first round pick provides some insurance should Bergenheim go down or Shore not amount to his potential.
Philadelphia:
Another team who has been trying to upgrade the goaltender position for quite a while is the Philadelphia Flyers. GM Paul Holmgren went out and signed Ray Emery to fill the hole, but many question Emery’s ability to play a whole season as a starter. If he gets off to a rocky start, Brodeur could be on Broad St before too long. It is well known around the league that Philly would be a serious contender if their net wasn’t a black hole for pucks, and Brodeur could help fix that problem. The Flyers are deep at centre and could give up a prospect and a pick without sacrificing their future. This is the exchange I would propose:
Philadelphia gets:
G Martin Brodeur
New Jersey gets:
C Brayden Schenn
2014 1st round pick.
Schenn is a player that Lou Lamiorello could build his team around and would immediately boost the team’s offense. Bringing Brodeur in takes the pressure and workload off Emery and give Flyers fans peace of mind knowing they have a goalie who can and will stop pucks for them, whether there are bears or not.
As for the other 2 teams, Colorado is expected to start shopping Ryan O’Reilly now that they have drafted Nathan Mackinnon. There could be a deal swung there. Additionally, the Islanders have a talented young core that could give up one or two of Ryan Strome, Casey Cizikas or Kirill Kabanov without putting the future of the franchise is danger.
Obviously, Brodeur is a monster in goal and the thought of trading him probably makes Devils fans throw up in their mouth a little, but with Cory Schneider in town, free from drama or distraction, the Devils should explore moving him to bring in some much-needed firepower. All of this, of course, is hypothetical and purely made up, but I would like to see how people react to the thought of Brodeur playing somewhere besides New Jersey.
This is an interesting look at how the AHL season is going to look this year in terms of divisions. Gone are The Whale which are replaced by the Hartford Wolf Pack and the brand new Utica Comets will make their debut. The AHL is constantly changing to adapt to the NHL. Give this a look through folks, its a good read.
The American Hockey League is a place of change on a season by season basis.
From testing new rules and regulations to be possibly used in NHL, to players moving up, down and around.
Heading into the 2013/2014 season we have yet more league re-alignment, saying goodbye to some old friends and welcoming some new teams to the AHL.
In the Eastern Conference there is only one change to note and that is a name change. Three years after re-branding themselves as the Connecticut Whale, the New York Rangers affiliate will be known once more as the Hartford Wolf Pack, which had been their name since 1997.
It’s the Western Conference where we have significant changes and re-alignment.
The South Division experiment didn’t last long and we are back to the old West Division.
The Abbotsford Heat, formerly in the North will make the move across…
Ahhhh 1970’s hockey. A time when pretty much everything was allowed and for good reason. Even though I didn’t live through it, the game was so much better back then. Alas, times have changed and while I don’t disagree with the safety of players, there’s one thing that should always remain…..hockey fights.
John “Moose” Wensink was from Maxville, Ontario and one arguably one of the meanest and craziest fighters of the time. Along with Stan Jonathan and Terry O’Reilly, you did not want to mess with the Bruins.
Apparently the Minnesota North Stars weren’t smart enough for that. Watch Wensink go crazy on Alex Pirus then challenge the entire Minnesota bench before the ensuing brawl.
Jon “Nasty” Mirasty is one player you’d rather have on your team then to be playing against him. In his 10 year professional career which has seen him play all over the globe, he has racked up a total of 2571 penalty minutes.
Case in point: He’s not one to be messed with.
Jon Mirasty is a native of Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan and got his start in the WHL. He turned pro in 2003 with the Bakersfield Condors of the ECHL and the legend was born. I was intrigued by his style and his brief foray into the MMA world.
March Hockey: You’ve played in numerous leagues but the one I’m most intrigued by is the KHL. How does the game over in Russia compare to that of North America?? Different atmosphere??
Jon Mirasty:Russia was a great experience. The game is a lot different. You play on a bigger ice surface which opens things up. On the physical aspect, guys there shy away from the rough stuff. Instead of booing, fans whistle. You don’t know if they are cheering for you or against you. It was very hard for me because I love to fight, and there I’d get into only 4 or 5 fights a season. All in all, it was a great time!
MH: I’ll ask right off the bat too, who’s the toughest guy you’ve ever fought?
JM:The toughest guy I ever fought is a pretty hard question to ask. I’ve fought so many guys that were very tough in different ways. Memorable guys that stand out to me would be guys like Steve MacIntyre, Derek Boogard, Jeremy Yablonski. I have to admit, Steve Bosse hit pretty hard too! But like I said, all the guys I fought were pretty tough and I respect them for doing one of the harder jobs in the game.
MH: You’ve spent some time in the LNAH. How does that league compare to other ones you’ve played in? Do you think it’s changed since you’ve left?
JM: I had a great time playing in the LNAH. Obviously the skill level wasn’t on par with the KHL or AHL, but I feel that a lot of people under estimate the league. From what I remember, there were some very good players, along with some very tough men. I love old school hockey but sometimes the fights/brawls got a little carried away. It was a very exciting league where fans got a little bit of everything. I haven’t played there in over 6 years so things may have changed.
MH: Growing up as a kid, who was your biggest influence on your game and why?
JM: A lot of people helped me get to where I got, but the biggest influence would have been my dad, Gary.
MH: Any chance will see you in an MMA ring again?? What was that experience like??
JM:MMA was awesome. I have a lot of respect for those athletes. It is completely different than fighting on skates. I did not prepare properly and was not ready to compete. It takes a lot of devotion and time to train. With my new business adventures, I doubt I’ll have the time to ever attempt to compete again. I will train though.
MH: If you could play (or fight haha) against anyone, past or present, who would it be and why??
JM: I’ve had great battles against many guys and would look forward to doing it again against any one of them. Let my son put a few years on, and maybe I’ll try him.
First off, I am a huge fan of blue. And in particular this version of blue. Blue might be used an awful lot in hockey threads but this one is bright enough to catch your attention and not end up dull. The contrasting yellow makes it even easier on the eyes. Yellow in general, I don’t like as a team colour but the Stampede make it work. (Hello Sweden, I know you proudly make it work too.)
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