Crazy Busy Off-Season Week in NHL News
Posted by jtbourne on June 24, 2010 · 19 Comments
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The hockey world is aflame this week, with trades, hirings, firings, awards, HOF inductions, drafts and free agency providing us with more news that we’d get during a regular season week. And like you, I’m quite enjoying it.
Speaking of enjoying, if you haven’t seen the Bobby Ryan/Ryan Getzlaf (a potentially great Wheel of Fortune “before and after” question) skit, give it a gander. It’s the perfect example of how the NHL can show it’s fans what it’s players are really like.
As opposed to NFL players, who are like “CHECK OUT MY PERSONALITY ISN’T IT AWESOME” *beating a fan over the head with bowling pin*, NHL players tend to be more ”Nono, that suit looks great man, nice pocket square” *laced with evil*.
Okay, the major topics.
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This, apparently, is Dino Ciccarelli. Only two career arrests? How noble.
HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS
What, you mean you don’t put Dino Ciccarelli above Pavel Bure, Doug Gilmour or Joe Nieuwendyk?
Okay, me neither. Full disclosure: I thought Ciccarelli was a tough guy. As in, had NO IDEA he was ever an offensive presence. So that might be a bit of a red flag on his HOF selection (or a red flag on my knowledge of NHL history, I dunno).
I will say this – in the “Builders” category, the only times I’ve heard the name “Jimmy Devellano” from my Dad and his cohorts is to say amazing, amazing things about how he doesn’t get enough recognition. So there ya go, that convo is over.
TRADES
Nathan Horton apparently wanted out of Florida, who obliged him by bending over and taking it up the tailpipe, as Jim Carrey put it in Liar Liar. Boston is suddenly, um, scary.
Between Wheeler, Lucic and Horton, they've got big boys that can play.
By the time they get through the draft with Seguin and some other potential-packed young bucks, AND maybe make another move or two for help right now…. Look out, the East is starting to look deep like the West. Who are you gonna pick to finish first next year: Washington? Pittsburgh? Philly? Boston? New Jersey? Buffa….no.
Dustin Byfuglien got moved somewhere that’ll please his detractors, Atlanta. It’ll please them, you see, because they’ll rarely have to watch him play. Probably no playoffs, not much coverage; he just evaporated into Atlanta’s mainstream obscurity, where he’ll work alongside Kane and Toews Peverly and Antropov, and try to build a playoff team in the next few years. Y’know, after winning a Cup. Two words: ouch. ….ouch.
What a great. trade. by Chicago. They addressed the cap situation, got some picks to ensure that their success is sustainable, and frankly, only moved one important piece. And for Atlanta, they get help now, which they desperately need.
But for Hawks fans, you’re not out of the woods yet (and you’re already down the guy you obsessed over this past season). There’s still at least one more shocker coming, and we’re allll pumped to see who it’s gonna be. If the rumours are any indication, Ladd could be the next to go.
The ollll switcheroo.
HIRING/FIRING
Pat Quinn has politely been asked to step to the side to make way for Tom Renney in Edmonton, who’s officially been given the keys to the Yugo that is the Oilers. It’s the right move, unfortunately. Quinn is a great guy, and was a great coach, but the times, they are a-changin’.
The “new” NHL involves far more pandering to personalities and offense than it did at Quinn’s peak, where the focus was on bear-hugging your opponent and and using the 1-0-4 neutral zone defense (also, some of the focus was on convincing your goaltender that it’s acceptable to go down). For a young team like the Oil who’ll be drafting a young star tomorrow, they needed a younger coach.
NHL AWARDS
I’m upset at ZERO of the selections, wonderfully done this year.
Canucks fans have Hall-of-Famers on their hands.
Henrik Sedin scored 112 points. When his brother was down, he picked his team up. He made plays with such vision and speed that I completely forgot to make fun of his zombie-like appearance. He was just a terror and neither Sid nor Ovy – who both had great years – could claim that they were better than him in the 09-10 season. I’m happy for Henrik.
Datsyuk owns the Selke, for this stat alone: he went 30 games without a penalty, and led the league in takeaways. How. is that. possible? You can only trick a guy with the stick-lift so many times…. or so I thought.
Could've taken it easy on the impressions though...
Keith took home the Norris, because, um, he was the best defenseman this year. Doughty may be a lock to win a couple in his career, and he may have been spectacular this year, but he didn’t get “there” yet. Oh, and Duncan? Your speech was a trainwreck.
All in all, I thought the awards show was great. People encouraged me to watch just to see how awful they are, but…. they weren’t. Then again, I usually like Jay Mohr (I like somewhat corny stuff), and I like any forced attempt at comedy, funny or not (hence my LOVE of stand-up comedy). If it wasn’t for the effing awful bands that played, it would’ve been entirely entertaining.
I mean holy shit, the Goo Goo Dolls? What the eff. (Bad music makes me swear)
NHL DRAFT
The reality of trying to play professional hockey is, there’s always some young kid on the come-up about to take your spot. The only solution, for me anyway, was to tune it all out. Like, seriously – I never watched or listened to any story that pertained to young guns. Now that I’m a writer, that has to change I suppose.
For me, the draft will be fun to watch for two reasons: trades, and to mock super-young nervous kids. I still didn’t pay much attention to the young guys this past year. Thus, like most of you, I know next to nothing about junior hockey/European/college players except for what I’ve read, soooo, whatever.
But I will be live-chatting about it from like, 1pm to 7:30pm tomorrow with Yahoo’s Puck Daddy. Expect awesome insight on players suits and their nervous ticks.
FREE AGENCY
The Isles are about to shock the world by signing Kovalchuk, Gonchar, and James. As in, Lebron. I’m sticking to my guns on that, and it’s going to be epic. And we’re trading DiPietro to Vancouver to back up Luongo, and getting the Sedins and Kesler in return. Awesome.
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ENTOURAGE is back with some new episodes soon. Yes, and also, yesss. I’ve missed Ari.
UPDATE: Ohmigod – as one of the nine fans serious enough to own box sets of the show, I can’t believe I didn’t mention the return of FUTURAMA tonight! Weeeee!
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Let’s talk puck. What’s on your mind?
Booooo Skankees!
SEE YOU IN THE WORLD SERIES, BEAR.
Oh, and BTW – how about Isner/Mahut? Damn.
I'm a hockey player turned writer. After playing for Alaska Anchorage in the WCHA (NCAA), I carried on with an NHL tryout (New York Islanders in 2007) before spending a couple seasons in the AHL/ECHL (last year was 2008-09). My father, Bob Bourne, won four Stanley Cups with the Islanders in the '80's, as did my fiancee's dad, Clark Gillies. I'm now the web editor for theScore's hockey blog "Backhand Shelf."
Glad to see Ben Eager got out to a ball game with you…
Ha, that’s my buddy from Boise, Jake Long, bartender extrordinaire!
Can we start the Marleau for Spezza rumours soon? Because I want them to start.
I thought it was a great trade for the Hawks. That had to happen when you have $13M tied up in a backup goalie and a #4 d-man. While people were hooting and hollering here during that trainwreck offseason when they signed Huet and Campbell, anyone with a clue about the cap implications were shaking their heads. You still have people saying the Campbell contract was okay because they don’t win the Cup this year without him, like they couldn’t have taken that $7.5M / year and made some other moves that would have enabled them to still win the Cup and not had that anchor of a contract on the books. San Jose said, “Ah, no thanks” to re-signing him that year, and traded for Dan Boyle (I know Matt Carle was part of that deal, and the Hawks could have offered a similar prospect at the time in Cam Barker to get that done). I’m pretty sure Boyle could have contributed to a Cup winner, but maybe I’m crazy. I know, similar contract, but Boyle brings a lot more to the table.
Oh no, you’re 100% right – that Campbell contract is a nightmare. The guy who just won the Norris Trophy makes Johnny Boychuk’s yearly salary LESS than Campbell per year.
The Goo Goo Dolls… they are the hot chick who broke horribly, horribly bad. Early on, they brought the rock, even opening up for “The Replacements” (IMHO, the epitome of what an American rock band should be). I thought they were going to carry that title moving forward.
Ooops.
Check out two albums: “Superstar Car Wash” and “A Boy Named Goo.” Can’t find a full version out there, but here’s a sample from iLike of “Stop the World”:
http://s0.ilike.com/play#Goo+Goo+Dolls:Stop+The+World:109766:s8103196.9868881.5953602.0.2.43%2Cstd_be95e08c2f914b3284727015a44f78f1
Full version of “Cuz You’re Gone”:
http://www.esnips.com/doc/290e69ec-7d4e-47eb-8ced-2c7ab180c563
I agree that it was a good deal for the Hawks. I’m sorry, I like Byfuglien, but Sharp and Versteeg both play in more situations than Buff, especially Sharp.
I like Shinedown, but was it just me or did they sound terrible last night? And I’m sorry, I know a lot of people like rap, especially the younger players, but… Snoop made my head hurt.
Why did they have any bands play at an NHL awards ceremony? Let alone some brutal dusters! Bourne Islanders may be off the hook as dispatch appears to think there pref of D to draft are Gromley, Fowler, Gudbrandson in that order. Yikes!
Ohmigod – as one of the nine fans serious enough to own box sets of the show, I can’t believe I didn’t mention the return of FUTURAMA tonight! Weeeee!
Bruins are looking scary, especially with Johnny Bombs coming back. Justin, what do you pay attention to for rumors, trade talk and free agency moves? Dreger? McKenzie? Any others?
i’m passin up on drop in game tonight for the new premier of FUTURAMA….
“The Isles are about to shock the world by signing Kovalchuk, Gonchar, and James. As in, Lebron. I’m sticking to my guns on that, and it’s going to be epic. And we’re trading DiPietro to Vancouver to back up Luongo, and getting the Sedins and Kesler in return. Awesome.”
LOL! yea, that was about what i imagined when i wanted you to write some more isles stuff … hilarious!
hope you didn’t get me wrong in yesterday’s PD chat during the award show … knowing you have a soft spot for keith, i couldn’t help thinking about jb-praises for they guy, just like you did during the playoffs. and yea, you’re right: he’s been the best d-man in the league by a country mile. but doughty’s olympic play impressed me even more (not that this has anything to do with the norris, but nevertheless).
man, you don’t like the smashing pumpkins, you don’t like the goo goo dolls … i’m starting to get a bit worried and concerned about your muscial tastes … so what DO you actually like?
and PLEASE don’t say “snoop dogg wearing an awful gretzky jersey foul and looking too stoned to care” …
the best part of the awards was, of course, datsyuk’s speech (“thank you management for paying me, i hope it never ends”, yeah!) and that clip about ryan and getzlaf … that was sooo great …. here’s hoping the nhl picks up pd’s suggestion and makes datsyuk, malkin and ovechkin the hosts. that would be effin magnificent!
Dave – I kinda figure the big stuff will come out sooner or later, and it’s rare that anybody other than the big names will have a scoop. But I do use Twitter a ton for that stuff, because that’s the only way to do it these days, and yes, I follow McKenzie and Dreger.
Also good are @Real_ESPN LeBrun (Pierre LeBrun), @dchesnokov (Dmitry Chesnokov, Russian dirt), @FriedmanHNIC (Elliotte Friedman), @JeffMarek, @RealKyper (Nick Kypreos), @mirtle (James Mirtle, a must), @kausatoday (Kevin Allen, usa today) and last but not least, @ChrisBottaNHL (Chris Botta, Isles stuff)
Thanks Justin, won’t get much work done tomorrow with ubertwitter going off every 3 minutes.
Entourage? Really? Where every episode is “The movie is off, what is Vince going to do? (20 minutes of bullshit) Wait, the movie is back on, let’s get wasted and bang models!”
Ooo, you’ve hacked the secret formula, bravo.
Everyone’s got guilty pleasure shows, and that’s mine. Watched the box sets start to finish with my busted jaw in Boise while the team was on a road trip. If you can get past the type of people who like the show and turn your (very intelligent) brain off, it’s a fun show.
Thanks for the shout out J.B. It was great to see you and the game was awesome. How about that wednesday game. We were three rows behind the Yankee dugout for that one. Unreal. See you in the World Series, Bear.
jl
Nothing makes me sadder than seeing big Buff go in to obscurity. I never got to see him much during the season since I am on the east coast, but nobody made me feel like I really could play in the NHL like Buff. I am 6’3 270 lbs and 42 years old. There is no place on the ice more fun for me than in front of the other teams goalie, while he, both defencemen, and the center try and move me out. My idol is going south, and who knows, maybe he can carry and entire organazation to the playoffs? He is big enough.