We now know the matchups for the four quarterfinal games at the 2013 World Hockey Championships in Stockholm, Sweden on Thursday.
Russia will play the United States, Finland will play Slovakia, the Czech Republic will play Switzerland while Canada will play Sweden in the final game on Thursday (12pm, TSN).
The biggest surprise in the round robin was Switzerland, who went through the full eight game round robin undefeated. It really seems there is significant progress at the moment regarding the level of play in the Swiss League, and that is transcending into success for Swiss hockey at the international stage.
It ha been an excellent tournament to date for Nashville Predators defenceman Roman Josi, who led Switzerland with seven round robin points.
The Calgary Flames had a solid opening 20 minutes Saturday night in Vancouver, but were unable to keep things going for the latter two periods.
The Vancouver Canucks scored five unanswered goals over the second and third period en route ti a convincing 5-1 win over the Calgary Flames at Rogers Arena.
Jordan Schroeder of Burnsville, Minnesota scored his first two National Hockey League career goals. The Canucks’ first round draft pick in 2009 first career goal was also the game winning goal on the power play from Alexandre Burrows and Alexander Edler.
Heading into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I like many, projected a Vancouver Canuck/Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup Final.
Now it is very possible that both teams may not even win ONE playoff game. Yesterday afternoon the Penguins lost 8-5 to the more highly talented Philadelphia Flyers and the Vancouver Canucks were shutout 1-0 to the Los Angeles Kings.
That’s right. The Penguins and the Canucks are down 3-0 and unless they win Wednesday night, they will be both swept in their conference quarterfinals.
So, what is actually going on? Well, the Penguins are scoring but goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has been so bad he wouldn’t be able to stop a beach ball at the moment. I’m in one playoff pool where all six have Fleury on their team.
This week on the show we’re discussing the latest big suspension from the NHL and some of the major playoff races – who’s in and who’s out? Meanwhile, in the NFL, the league comes down hard on the New Orleans Saints over the team’s bounty program and the Denver Broncos win the Peyton Manning sweepstakes!
In the GABBYs: Kevin Love, Leo Messi, Fernando Torres, Ben Eager, Wayne Rooney and Joba Chamberlain. The Punchline this week is a Tim Tebow inspired drink!
Move over Serena and Venus Williams. Move over Daniel and Henrik Sedin. You have company now in the world of curling.
After Day three of the 2012 Tim Horton’s Brier in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Alberta’s Kevin Koe is a perfect 5-0, and his brother Jamie, is a solid 4-1. That’s a 90% winning percentage for the curling brothers. The sport of curling hasn’t seen this type of dominance by brothers since Russ and Glenn Howard six years ago.
Team Alberta out of the Glencoe Club in Calgary, may be 5-0 after a convincing 8-2 win over Prince Edward Island this afternoon and a 6-3 win over home town Saskatchewan tonight, but I have been slightly more impressed with Jamie Koe’s 4-1 because of the strength of schedule factor.
Jamie Koe has defeated 2006 Olympic Champion Brad Gushue of Newfoundland, 2007 World Champion Glenn Howard of Ontario and 2010 Bronze medallist Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario to date. Northwest Territories/Yukon are tied with Ontario at 4-1.
In Tuesday morning’s television action, Kevin Koe takes on Brad Gushue of Newfoundland, who is currently a surprising 1-4.
One of the most exciting sporting events of the entire year got under way last night in Vancouver.
For only the fourth time since 1923, Canada is in the main World Group of the Davis Cup, and yes folks there are reasons to be very excited.
Last night, Milos Raonic was dominant with his serve in his 6-2, 6-4, 7-5 win over France’s Julien Benneteau. Equally as dominant though was France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who beat Canada’s Vasek Pospisil yesterday afternoon 6-1, 6-3, 6-3.
Now the stage is set for exciting doubles action today. I know Milos Raonic is the best Canadian tennis player today, but you could make the serious case that Daniel Nestor is the greatest Canadian tennis player ever. Nestor is a doubles specialist, who has a remarkable career record of 830-318. The seven-time major winner is still going great at age 39 and is currently ranked number three in the world. Like Steve Nash who I discussed yesterday, Daniel Nestor is playing at an elite level which is truly amazing to watch. Nestor along with Pospisil will play the French duo of Michael Llodra and Benneteau with the Canadian team favoured to win the match (Sportsnet, 3pm).
Play will continue Sunday (Sportsnet, 3pm) with Raonic taking on Tsonga and a fifth match with possible meaning. The two have never faced each other.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Another week has come and gone in the NHL as we inch closer to the new year, and that means it’s time for another installment of the Goals of the Week!
This time around, we’ve got a pretty tic-tac-toe play, a last-second game winner, some nifty passing from the twins and a couple of Bruins topping the list. Think you know which goals I’m talking about? Let’s see!
5. Brooks Laich
Checking in at number five this week is Washington Capitals forward Brooks Laich, who starts and finishes some nice passing by his club in a win over the NJ Devils.
(AFTER THE JUMP: The rest of the Top Five goals of the week!)
It is not many times where you’ll find me calling out the NHL referees in a hockey game. They have a very difficult challenge on a regular basis, and it is difficult to see everything that is on the ice.
But in today’s NHL, there are two of them– and on Monday night there were two instances where the referees made a decision, that went against the Oilers, and eventually cost them the hockey game in a 5-3 Vancouver win.
In the first period, it became very evident to me that Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks got away with a penalty. Sedin knocked down Oiler checking line forward Lennart Petrell, got into an open area, received a pass from his twin brother Henrik and put the puck past Nikolai Khabibulin to put the Canucks up 2-0. If Daniel Sedin doesn’t knock down Petrell in front of the net, he doesn’t have the open space to score. Khabibulin protested, but it was to no avail.
Then in the third period, with the Oilers having momentum and down by two, Ryan Smyth was called for interference. Smyth on this particular play was standing on the blue line because he didn’t want to be offside. A Canuck skated into him and fell down.
What Kelly Sutherland and Dave Jackson were thinking tonight, I’m not sure. But I expected better from two experienced referees.
In other action tonight, Cam Ward became the first goaltender this season and first in five years to be credited with a goal. Devils’ forward Ilya Kovalchuk attempted a pass with the goaltender pulled, but the puck got by Adam Henrique and all the way into the Devils’ net. Ward was the last Hurricane player to touch the puck and was credited with the goal in Carolina’s 4-2 win over New Jersey. Chris Mason of the Nashville Predators was the last goaltender to score a goal on April 15, 2006. Ward becomes the tenth goaltender in NHL history to achieve the feat.
The Calgary Flames now head on to a significant road trip after a poor performance at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
On Tuesday, the Flames had a very sluggish performance in a 5-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks. Swedish defenceman Alexander Edler led the Canucks in scoring with a goal and two assists. Cody Hodgson was the other Canuck with a multi-point game with a goal and an assist.
Alexandre Burrows, Chris Higgins and Daniel Sedin also scored for the Canucks in a very strong balanced effort where twelve Canucks registered at least one point.
The Flames meanwhile ot their lone goal of the hockey game from Alex Tanguay, who broke Roberto Luongo’s shutout bid with 32 seconds left in regulation. The Flames just seemed to lack energy and momentum. The Canucks got off to an early 3-0 lead and made it 5-0 midway through the second period. It was interesting that Flames’ head coach Brent Sutter decided not to pull goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff, as it was clearly not his fault on the majority of goals he gave up Tuesday.
With the loss, Calgary falls to 4-5-1, while Vancouver improves to 6-5-1.
Calgary now goes on a three game road trip to Detroit on Thursday, Buffalo on Friday and Colorado on Sunday. This was the first of six straight road games for the Canucks, who will also travel to Minnesota, St. Louis, Chicago, Los Angeles and Anaheim over the next ten days.
Heading into the weekend, there is one particular statistic that stands out to me over all the others.
After eight days in the NHL’s regular season, the Edmonton Oilers are tied with the Detroit Red Wings for the fewest goals allowed in the entire league! That’s right folks, the Oilers and Red Wings have only disallowed three goals each.
Oilers’ goaltenders Devan Dubnyk and Nikolai Khabibulin have actually only given up two regulation goals between them. Dubnyk gave up a softy to Kris Letang in the Oilers’ 2-1 shootout win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday, while Khabibulin gave up a regulation goal to Matt Cullen in Edmonton’s 2-1 shootout loss to Minnesota on Thursday.
On Saturday night, the Oilers will entertain the Vancouver Canucks at Rexall Place. They will have a tough time containing Daniel and Henrik Sedin though, who have combined for 114 points in 123 games in their career versus the Oilers. Game time is 8pm and can be seen on CBC.
Tomorrow is actually one of my favourite times of year. The NHL Awards night in Las Vegas. Here are my predictions for 2010-11.
CALDER– JEFF SKINNER–CAROLINA HURRICANES–Should the Oilers should have taken Skinner over Taylor Hall? Well, if you go by their rookie seasons, you could clearly make a case for the 19 year old out of Markham, Ontario. He led all rookies with 63 regular season points on a Hurricanes’ club that was in the Eastern Conference playoff hunt all season long.
NORRIS–ZDENO CHARA–BOSTON BRUINS–My vote was actually Lubomir Visnovsky of the Anaheim Ducks, who led all defencemen with 68 points and was a +18. But, confusingly he was never one of the three finalists. Chara won the trophy back in 2009, and should win it this year. Despite recording only 44 points, fewer than Niklas Lidstrom of Detroit (62) and Shea Weber of Nashville (48), Chara was a +33 to lead all blueliners, and was a +35 higher than Lidstrom.
SELKE–RYAN KESLER–VANCOUVER CANUCKS–The American silver medallist provided the Canucks with outstanding backchecking all season long, and combined solid defense with respectable offensive numbers (41 goals, 32 assists). A major reason why the Canucks had an NHL best +77 goals for and against differential, was the play of Kesler on the Canucks’ second line, who was also a +24 in 2010-11.
When one says the “G” word right before the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, many have to hold their breath.
However, according to the Calgary Sun, that is what exactly what Vancouver Canuck forward Daniel Sedin said on Wednesday, leading up to the biggest game within the National Hockey League of his career.
Don’t forget, Sedin is an Olympic Gold medallist with Sweden, from the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy, and one could argue that an Olympic Gold medal is bigger than a Stanley Cup, but that is up for debate at another time.
The bottom line is that Sedin said the dreaded “G” word today, and will have immense spotlight on him with Game Seven set to go in three and a half hours from now.
In other Stanley Cup Playoff news, Nathan Horton of the Boston Bruins, who suffered a concussion in game three if the Stanley Cup Finals on a hit from Aaron Rome, traveled with the team to Vancouver, but will not play.
The Vancouver Canucks are only two wins away from winning the Stanley Cup.
Saturday night Alexandre Burrows scored eleven seconds into overtime as the Canucks defeated the Boston Bruins 3-2 to take a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals.
The fastest overtime goal in history also came in Game Two of the Stanley Cup Final on Canadian soil.
On May 18, 1986, Brian Skrudland of the Montreal Canadiens scored nine seconds into overtime as the Canadiens defeated the Calgary Flames 3-2 in Calgary to tie the series at one. The Canadiens would go on to beat the Flames 4-1 to win the Stanley Cup.
It was not a good game for former Flame Andrew Ference who gave the puck away twice that led directly to two Vancouver Canuck goals.
What a start to the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night in Vancouver!
The Canucks opening game win over the visiting Boston Bruins had a little bit of everything – enormous saves at both ends, some big hits, a few nice offensive displays and a lot of nastiness between two clubs that seemed to develop a hate for each other in a hurry. It wasn’t all good though – there was also a bit of controversy that is sure to spill over into today.
The big discussion in hockey circles at the moment revolves around an incident that happened at the end of the first period of game one involving Canucks forward Alex Burrows. He was mixing it up with Boston’s Patrice Bergeron along the boards, with a linesman trying to pry them apart, when Burrows appears to chomp down on the gloved finger of his opponent.
It’s at this point that Bergeron gets heated and even skates over to try and show the referee the bite mark. After the game, Burrows was asked about the incident and said “I think he had his finger in my mouth, but I don’t think I bit him.” (After the jump: VIDEO of the bite, plus ANOTHER dive…why is it happening so much?) (more…)
Another week has come and gone in the NHL as we inch closer to the new year, and that means it’s time for another installment of the Goals of the Week!
What a start to the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night in Vancouver!
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