Hockey Day in America: Love It!!!!!!!!!!
Being a hockey nut, Hockey Day in America was great. NBC's coverage was awesome. It started here with the Capitals against the Sabres. The Caps sent the home team to its 3rd loss in a row defeating the Sabres 2-1 before a sold out crowd at Hot Sauce & Blue Cheese (HSBC) Arena. But for Ryan Miller, this game would have been a blow out as the Sabres were overmatched and took many dumb penalties. Had to laugh at the local pre-game interview that Ray Ferraro had with Adam Scungili (Ithink its Beningni) from WGRZ-TV. Ferraro had to be humoring the locals by saying he would be surprised if the Sabres didn't make the playoffs. Ray, are you kidding me?? While the Sabres could make the playoffs, are they that much better than the Carolina Hurricanes?? By the way, who on the Sabres is as good as Eric Staal??? I can't think of anyone. The six game homestand has started out terribly as the Sabres are 0-3 and they face the Thrashers Wednesday.
NBC then went to cover the last 1:50 in the Flyers-Rangers game. Unfortunately, the Flyers held on to defeat the Blueshirts 4-2 with the last goal in an empty net. On to Minnesota where NBC picked up the Wild- Red Wings game which saw the Wings win 2-1 in a shoot out. Despite the fact that I can't stand them, you have to give the Red Wings credit: they just keep on being a potential Stanley Cup winner.
The late game between Pittsburgh and Chicago was a classic with the Hawks getting a much needed 2 points by winning 3-2 in a shoot out. Marc Andre-Fleury was unreal in this game making many big saves, including a game saver late in overtime. Local boy Patrick Kane had a beauty which was the game winner in the shoot out.
It would be great if every Sunday, after the Super Bowl, we had a hockey doubleheader on Sunday afternoons. Of course not sure how NBC would feel about that but maybe ESPN would. There is going to be a new TV contract for the NHL. Hopefully, it will be something to be considered.
The Johnnies are Back and a Tough Loss for the Leafs
In what has probably become one of the great stories in college basketball this season, the St. John's Red Storm continued their giant killing ways by knocking off 4th ranked Pittsburgh 60-59 at the MSG. Coach Steve Lavin has done a remarkable job in bringing back this basketball program and making it a dangerous participant in this year's version of March Madness.
The Big East is truly the toughest conference in the country as evidenced by yesterday's results: West Virginia over ranked Notre Dame, St. John's win over Pitt, and Syracuse and Villanova needing to go to overtime to beat Rutgers and Depaul. As a Big East fan, you have to hope that the grueling regular season prepares the tourney eligible teams for the March Madness grind as opposed to leaving them worn out for what lies ahead.
Last night marked the beginning of the Tomas Kaberle-less era in Leafland. The Leafs, despite out-shooting Ottawa 47 - 22, dropped a 1-0 shootout decision to their inter-provinicial rival at the ACC. Luke Schenn came very close to ending the game in regulation when he labeled one off the goal post late in the third period. However, the Leafs came even closer in the overtime session when Craig Anderson made two saves off of Phil Kessel on the same play, with the puck unluckily skidding past the goal line.
While the Leafs badly out shot their opponents, most of those shots were from the outside with little traffic in front of Anderson. Luke Schenn was a standout on defense and was an alternate captain last night, taking the spot vacated by the trade of Kaberle. While reports out of Toronto indicate that Colby Armstrong will take over that role, Schenn has truly become a leader on this team. What's more remarkable is that he is only 21 years old.
A killer for the Leafs last night was their power play which was putrid for the most part. While some will place that on the loss of Kaberle, I find that too simplistic in that the power play problems this year have been the same with or without Kaberle which is a lack of presence in front of the net. It would have been nice to see more of Carl Gunnarsson on the power play as the kid has some offensive creativity as evidenced by a nifty pass to Joffrey Lupul which set up a good scoring chance in the 3rd period.
While the Leafs playoff hopes are probably on life support, their is hope as what was eveidenced by the play of Schenn, Keith Aulie (who had a very strong game), the Grabovski line and Phil Kessel. Joffrey Lupul flashed his offensive skill on a couple of occasions and hopefully he can get some pucks in the net. And how can you forget James Reimer who very well may be the goalie of the future.
The key for the rest of the season needs to be continuous improvement. The Leafs are next on the ice Tuesday against the Islanders at the ACC.
Hello world!
Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!
Eklund’s Hockey Buzz
Pro Football Talk
Post Archive
- December 2013 (2)
- September 2013 (1)
- August 2013 (3)
- July 2013 (1)
- May 2013 (4)
- April 2013 (6)
- March 2013 (8)
- February 2013 (14)
- January 2013 (20)
- December 2012 (17)
- November 2012 (14)
- July 2012 (6)
- May 2012 (2)
- April 2012 (19)
- March 2012 (20)
- February 2012 (22)
- January 2012 (25)
- December 2011 (22)
- November 2011 (26)
- October 2011 (29)
- September 2011 (25)
- August 2011 (28)
- July 2011 (31)
- June 2011 (29)
- May 2011 (30)
- April 2011 (24)
- March 2011 (36)
- February 2011 (13)