NHL – Page 9

FLASHBACK FRIDAY – 1993 Stanley Cup Playoffs Pt. 1

I’m going to make one fan base re-live cruel moments and one fan base re-live some glory with this one. I apologize in advance, you guys know who you are.

Ahhhhh 1990’s hockey. What a time to be a hockey fan! Canadian teams were still half decent; ALL CANADIAN TEAMS MADE THE PLAYOFFS, Wayne Gretzky turned his back, defected to Los Angeles and then became hated by a nation, and then there’s my personal favourite: Mediocre NHLers of the 90’s. But more on that on Mediocre Monday. (I’m looking at you Sergio Momesso.)

The first round of the 1993 playoffs saw a deep rivalry between the Montreal Canadiens and Quebec City Coyotes…I mean, Nordiques. After all, Montreal’s star goaltender, a guy by the name of Patrick Roy is from rivaled QC. Not phased however, Montreal whizzed passed them and into the second round. Little did they know that would be the last time they’d play the Nordiques of Quebec.

The Boston Bruins came into the playoffs with the second best record in the league. Anything can happen though as the Buffalo Sabres proved that by SWEEPING them in 4. I think I’ll just leave this here…..

Fast forward to the division finals. Montreal sweeps Buffalo, the Islanders beat Pittsburgh (?!?) and L.A throttles Vancouver. The Norris Division final was between the Toronto Maple Leafs and St. Louis Blues. The game went the full 7 games and what a beauty of a series it was. Both teams battled hard but eventually Toronto came out on top. Doug Gilmour’s double overtime game winning goal in game 1 is still one of the best I’ve ever seen.

And NOW things get interesting. At least for one team.

Part two will be delivered next Friday!

Avs Don’t Want The ‘D’

March’s note: Little do you folks know, I have one of the greatest friends a woman could ask for living over in London, England. Leo Patten is a die hard Dallas Stars fan and is the transition of moving close to Tampa, Florida for 6 months starting in August. He is hopeful to take in as many NHL games as possible to add to already impressive hockey resume. I asked him if he had anything he wanted to contribute, so here is his take on the situation in Colorado. Golly good job ol’ boy!

It appears that the Colorado Avalanche will pass on Seth Jones, arguably the top prospect in this year’s up and coming draft.

Okay, it’s a given that most NHL teams with a first overall pick in the draft, will almost always choose a strong offensive player over the best two way defencemen. However, within the modern game it seems that most clubs are pretty much going after whatever system or culture is flavour of the month.

Now part of me can understand this new culture of youth, due to how the Cap and CBA agreements have changed over the years. I mean this in terms of player management, contracts and of course style of play. It’s totally different from the days of good ol’ time hockey. General Managers have to be constantly one step ahead of the game. But this is all chatter for another time.

Ryan O'Reilly and Gabriel Landeskog. (Photo: Lindsay Akkiyama, flickr.) — Ryan O’Reilly and Gabriel Landeskog. (Photo: Lindsay Akkiyama, flickr.)

Newly appointed Joe Sakic and Patrick Roy are definitely going to be shaking things up in Denver so it seems. Again, following a common trend of appointing an extremely young captain in Gabriel Landeskog, they are clearly making preparations for the future. The bottom line of the Draft is in some ways, pot luck. Either way the Avalanche will obtain a highly skilled player and whether they step up to to the plate will remain to be seen.

This also doesn’t fair well for other clubs such as the Florida Panthers who have their sights firmly set on players like Nathan MacKinnon, who is definitely what they need right now.

It’s clear that Colorado issues lie in poor defensive quality in the back end and I’m not sure what they hope to achieve by drafting more fire power. If this trend continues it’s quite clear that we will have plenty more upsets continuing in the playoffs of the future. *COUGH*PITTSBURGH*COUGH*.

–@pattenMH

Stanley Cup Finals Game 4 Recap

Ladies and Gentleman, we have a series. In the immortal words of Bob Cole, “Oh Boy!”

Game 4 showed nothing but excitement right out of the gate. Chicago split both games in Boston and is heading back to home ice advantage with a huge swing in momentum. A huge key that was missing in game 3, Chicago played the body and didn’t let up all game.

What a goal fest. Boston came back 3 times to tie things up and it seemed like luck was on their side heading into overtime. But in reality, it could’ve went both ways. The Bruins caught Corey Crawford’s weak glove side enough times to look like J.P. Arencibia catching R.A Dickey’s knuckle ball. (What’s with the Jays and abbreviated names anyway? Just noticed that.) On a side note, what does that say for Team Canada in Sochi?

There has been 27 overtime games in this years playoffs alone. That’s one shy of an NHL record. We are at least guarenteed two more games and the way things have been growing, I’m sure it will be broken.

Chicago’s stars finally showed up and started putting pucks into the net. Toews especially who had gone scoreless in 10 games.

In case you missed Seabrook’s game clincher, here it is in all of it’s amazing glory:

Dumb Arena Names….Thanks To The Canadian Tire Centre.

In an interesting piece of odd news, the Ottawa Senators now have the Canadian Tire to call home.

The shock came down Tuesday morning as GM Eugene Melnyk announced that the Scotiabank Place will be renamed the Canadian Tire Centre as of July 1st. The company has an 8 year deal which will have an option for them to renew in 2021.

With that being said, let’s look at some other silly arena names of hockey’s past.

1. BB&T Center, Florida Panthers.
Ok granted, this doesn’t sound too bad from the get go. Flip back a couple years in it’s history and you’ll find “National Car Rental Center”. Um, are you serious?? I realize National Car Rental was a major sponsor (or still is, I have no idea what goes on with hockey in Florida or why it’s still there.) but come on, give your head a shake. I hope they at least offered the fans a chance to drive around with Pavel Bure at intermission.

2. The Cow Palace, San Jose Sharks.
Oh those poor poor, Sharks. What do Sharks even have in common with cows?! Yes I know it was their first year in the league and there was no arena in San Jose yet and yes I know this arena was in San Francisco but once again, COME ON. Sharks. Cows. They have nothing in common. I guess Link Gaetz kinda resembles a cow.

3. PNC Arena, Carolina Hurricanes.
Can’t complain with this one really. Rolls off the tongue nice. I’m referring to when it was once known as the RBC Center. As in, ROYAL BANK OF CANADA Center. In Raleigh, North Carolina. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. How does that even work?! Are there even any RBC branches down there?? I know TD has made it’s way south of the border (Hence TD Garden in Boston), but RBC? That one makes me shake my head.

Can you think of anymore dumb arena names? Drop me a line on Twitter. I love a good laugh. @MissAMarch