San Jose Poaches Wellwood (Mmm…Eggs), Jiggs Move In

New Puck Daddy: on getting cute with the puck, featuring a goal by Mattias Tendenby, and a turnover by Ilya Kovalchuk

Oh, and from yesterday….

The Hockey News: me once again railing about “shoot from everywhere” being stupid - it actually relates nicely to today’s PD piece, in that it leads to a point - if guys need to shoot less and wait for better scoring chances in today’s NHL, then guys who are good at “getting cute” have more value.

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Okay, should I drop the Jiggs pictures on you now, or wait?  Let’s start with one, then some hockey, then a few more.  Lots to discuss today. 

I give you…. JIGGS!

All ur hartz are belong to meee

Dude is a maniac. Got his paw inexplicably stuck in chair thingy, wedged it in so good I had to pry it out.

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So, the St. Louis Blues acquired Kyle Wellwood from wherever the hell he was, and as is protocol, they had to run him through waivers first.  San Jose picked him up, and now St. Louis gets a kick in the nads, and the Sharks get a hockey player.

Really dude, a wood blade?

Whatever the reason is for teams to do this to STL, whether it’s to fortify their own rosters or keep St. Louis’ depleted, it’s stupid that it can happen.

First off, offer sheets are a taboo in the league, but this isn’t?  I realize the guy isn’t officially on the first team that claims him (as the offer sheeted player is), but how silly is it that the other teams can sit back and poach a player nobody wanted until they did?

The best idea we cooked up on twitter (we being friend of the blog, Kennedy aka @skennedy39) is that that the NHL should make the new team, in this case San Jose, at least have to pay, say, 5% more than St. Louis was going to (the minimum).  And then you offer St. Louis the chance to re-raise on that another 5%, so that the team who’s serious enough about wanting the player can still attain him, and the guy getting signed gets what he deserves.  If multiple people want you, you earn more money, that’s the supply and demand of sports.

When this shit happens, I can’t help but think of whoever the call-up 4th liner on the Blues is, who’s making three grand EVERY DAY he’s on an NHL roster (where he probably makes $70k in the AHL), so he’s on a roller coaster.

We acquired Wellwood?  Fak.  Back to the minors.

The Sharks claimed him?!

And then he celebrates like PK Subban after an overtime winner (which I loved, by the way.  Sick wrister, sick celly).  And of course, the reverse is going on over in San Jose.

The Sharks making some changes, hey?  And good on ‘em.  If you suck, somethings gotta give.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve gotta say about that, it just seems ridiculous that it can happen.  And while we’re talking SJ, check out this pic I took of a dude with a chopper and  a Sharks tattoo….think he’s a fan?

It's actually a damn cool tattoo

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In other news, there were rumours Crosby might hold out of the all-star game because he’s bitter about head shots.  Turns out it was just complete speculation from one slightly convoluted “opinion piece” by David Shoalts.

The reason I knew that wouldn’t happen and immediately shook my head at the rumour: Crosby doesn’t make waves, he avoids them.  This would be completely unprecedented.  And if there’s anything we’ve come to expect from Sid, it’s same ‘ol same ‘ol, evvvverrrryyyday.

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If you like twitter and sports, I recommend checking out the website www.quickish.com – it’s like twitter, only you don’t participate.  Basically, it’s a sports news aggregator that provides links to stories and quotes of interest around all the major sports and college leagues.  It doesn’t have a ton of hockey, but it’s branched out into “some” since launching I think a week ago.

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The NHL All-Star game captains have been named: Eric Staal and Nick Lidstrom.

So now they’ll flip a coin and start picking players – I’m really excited about that part, but not the captains, just because they’re a couple of guys who say the right things, and are in general polite dudes.  I was hoping for a little more chaos than I expect out of those two, but still, excited to watch the whole thing go down.

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And for the finale….let’s get Jiggy with it:

Tha boys

Tyson giving us the "what the fuck did you bring into my kingdom?" look.

Day four, as close as they've ever got. Jiggs snuck in there while Ty was out.

Last one, for now

Have a solid Tuesday folks, see ya tomorrow.

Stanley Cup Frontrunners

Contributing to the Power Rankings for USA Today each couple weeks really makes me think about where teams in the NHL are at.  These are the left-over thought nuggets from this weeks edition.

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Carolina - In last years playoffs, Bourne’s Blog became a forum for a quality back and forth with some of the Carolina faithful about their team (mostly because I was treating the ‘Canes like I’ve been treating Phoenix this year), and somewhere along the way I got convinced that they weren’t all that bad.  It made sense that they wouldn’t be – Eric Staal is worthy of having a team built around him, Cam Ward is one of the best goalies in the NHL, and I thought Paul Maurice was a pretty good coach.

When we did our  pre-season predictions, we got some static about the lack of Carolina love.  I had debated whether or not to include them, but we were only asked to pick division and conference winners, not playoff teams, so it made no sense to mention them.  Playoffs, yes, top team, no.

So what the f**k is going on down there?

And now the two players I mentioned before are hurt?  They’re worse than my Isles?  The Leafs?  Hit that “comment” button ‘Canes fans.  Explain yourselves.

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I can’t help but think that there’s about a 20% chance the Cup winner comes out of the Western Conference this year.

Who looks like a Cup threat right now?  I mean, you can say the Colorado Avalanche, but you don’t mean that.  You’re aware they’re still a “good young team”, right?  It’s okay to say that they’re legit.  Tons of up-and-coming talent.  But I don’t see a whole lot of “crap, I don’t want to play that team in playoffs” on their roster.  I do see a whole lot of “crap, I really don’t feel like playing this mid-season game, can someone get a leash on Wolski? Stastny? O’Reilly? Duchene?  CAN SOMEONE GET A BELL ON DUCHENE!??”

Name another threat with a straight face right now. 

The Sharks? 

I’d agree, if they didn’t play in the the Pacific Division, or as it’s better known, the ”try-to-gage-a-team-in-a-division-with-LA-Phoenix-and-Dallas” group. Heatley was a massive pick-up.  Fine.  He makes them the West’s best hope until Chicago inevitably wakes from it’s slumber.  But there’s still something that doesn’t feel right about calling the Sharks a Cup contender.  What does it mean that when I picture the Pacific Division, I picture a train going over some old wooden tressel bridge, only nobody knows the wood is rotten beneath?  I feel like every passing train (game?) is one closer to the utter collapse of the whole thing.  Combine that with a history of playoff failure, and it’s hard to be too sold on the Teal Trainwrecks Titans.

I know you can only beat the teams you play (the Boise State football problem), it’s just tough to tell if they’re actually good, or playing bad opponents.  But, they will be a top three seed again, so here’s to hoping that they can break the same mold they built.

How about this:  If I were to say “for a thousand dollars, will the Stanley Cup come out of the Western Conference, or the Atlantic Division?” - which one are you picking?

Atlantic Division

	GP	W	L	OT	Pts	GF	GA	Home	Away	L10	Streak
Pittsburgh Penguins	17	12	5	0	24	54	44	5-3-0	7-2-0	6-4-0	Lost 2
New Jersey Devils	15	11	4	0	22	39	33	3-4-0	8-0-0	8-2-0	Won 5
New York Rangers	18	10	7	1	21	56	48	6-2-0	4-5-1	3-6-1	Lost 1
Philadelphia Flyers	14	9	4	1	19	52	37	6-2-1	3-2-0	6-3-1	Won 4
New York Islanders	17	6	6	5	17	44	50	5-2-2	1-4-3	5-3-2	Won 1

You know what I’d pick?  I’d pick to complain that it’s NO WONDER THE ISLES STRUGGLE SO BAD. 

This is what makes the NHL playoffs so great.  It’s not accurate to gage a team based strictly on their record, since head-to-head is the only undeniable measuring stick for “who’s-better-than-who”.  In the ever-popular BCS, strength of schedule is a heavy factory in determining the best teams.  Fortunately for us, the NHL has a playoff format, so we actually get to watch the “I wonder who’s actually better” questions play out.

And who’s actually better?

The Stanley Cup Champion Penguins, my friend.  That’s not just picking the obvious – at this point in the season, it’s picking correctly.

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And last, I wanted to give a shout-out to the reader who read my USA Today article, found my blog, tracked down my email, then wrote me the following email, which is printed below, unedited:

“you smoke pickle”

And so, I laughed.