The Trade Deadline Ends. Thankfully.

Not sure if you caught it yesterday, but David Booth squared up and fought Mike Richards last night, which was the greatest thing in the history of the NHL ever.  I think.  Oh, and he had a goal and three assists.  And he’s on my fantasy hockey team.  I love David Booth.

Puttin' on the foil.

Think Team USA could have used one more goal scorer?  God it sucks that he didn’t get to play for his country… If I were Booth I’d have waited til Richards dropped his gloves, picked my stick back up and tried to crush his hands.  I’m just really proud of the guy for sticking up for himself against a tough character in Richards, that’s old time hockey.  Toe Blake n shit.

*****

Mercifully, that trade deadline is over. The paint has dried.

But in the end, I like the paint colour.  I’m so excited that the Coyotes got Wojtek Wolski.  Living here in Phoenix, who did you want to go see play, who sold tickets?  Jovonovski?

Coyote fans are in for a treat.

I finally have some real insentive to go.  I love that they were so aggressive, I was just completely blindsided by it (seeing that they’re spending the leagues money and all.  But this makes so much sense!  This is what I’ve been saying!  If they want to make it here, they can’t do it without having a team worth watching!).  I’m not so sure if I stand by my prediction of “sell” now that they have five new guys in the lineup working to make a first impression on Tippett.

So yes – I like the moves my “hometown” boys made, trading for the offense I thought they lacked, and that I thought was going to catch up with them.  Even picking up Petteri Nokelainen was a great move, this guy is just waiting to blow up.  The only thing I don’t really get, is trading for Morris and Schneider.

The Phoenix Coyotes are leading the NHL in goals scored by a d-corp.  They’ve been solid defensively, playing in front of a guy they trust.  So what’s the point in bringing in offensive d-men when you’re doing great in that area, when the two guys coming in are both a “little” suspect defensively?  Now your defensive-liability-list is starting to look a little scary (and old).  It’s a good thing Tippett is such a good coach.  ….Plus, anytime you can get Vandermeer out of steady rotation you’ve improved your team, so good for the Coyotes there.

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The NHL Network asked the question “who improved more, Washington or Pittsburgh?

Washington added: Joe Corvo, Scott Walker, Eric Belanger and Milan Jurcina.

Pittsburgh added: Alex Ponikarovsky and Jordan Leopold.

Wait, I'm on a real team now?

So many people loved Olympic hockey, because you didn’t have to sit through the shifts of tough-humans-who-can-skate-but-not-play-hockey like, oh I dunno, Scott Walker.  Admittedly, I don’t know much about Belanger (step up, Wild fans) or Corvo (step up, that-one-guy-from-Carolina-who-occasionally-defends-his-team-that-we-haven’t-really-heard-from-much-this-year), so I’m not really sure what happenend with Washington, I just know that any team adding Scott Walker is confused about how winning happens.

As for Pittsburgh, they made two golden, golden moves.  For me, last years Stanley Cup win was so incredible, because I thought they did it on the backs of about four or five guys, not a full team.  I figured it was going to be a lot harder for them to repeat than people thought.

With these moves, they picked up depth on D – Leopold is a hell of a player – as well as some size and scoring in PonikathankgodI’moutofToronto.

So early ruling, until we hear from readers – Pittsburgh gets the verdict over Washington…. likel usual.