The Pittsburgh Penguins had no problems scoring whatsoever in game four of the Eastern Conference semi-final against the Ottawa Senators Wednesday evening.
The Penguins score seven times past the two Senators goalies of Craig Anderson and Robin Lehner en route to a convincing 7-3 victory to take a 3-1 series lead.
Defenceman Kris Letang led the Penguins offensive attack with four assists. James Neal was a force with two goals on nine shots, and an assist. While Jarome Iginla, Sidney Crosby and Pascal Dupuis also had multi-point games, with two points each.
The Senators meanwhile do not seem to have any confidence. Captain Daniel Alfredsson stated afterwards, he didn’t think the Senators would be able to put together three wins in a row and come back and win the series. He later stated his words were taken out of context. That backtrack however does not seem all that believable.
Wayne Gretzky is the greatest hockey player of all-time. Heck, he is also the greatest athlete of all-time. But I think it is safe to say that right now Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins is the best hockey player in the world right now.
On Friday night, Crosby showed just why he is so great. In a dominating performance, Crosby had a hat trick by the early portion of the second period in a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators in game two of the Eastern Conference semi-final that put the Penguins up 2-0 in the best-out-of-seven series.
Crosby will now have the opportunity to showcase his skills north of the border this weekend as Pittsburgh travels to Ottawa for game three of the Eastern Conference semi-final (Sunday, CBC, 5:30 p.m.). I know the Penguins are loaded with talent that includes Evgeni Malkin and Jarome Iginla, but the bottom line is when healthy Pittsburgh is Crosby’s team.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching:
Saturday–MLB–New York Mets @ Chicago Cubs–WPIX–11:00 a.m.–Two teams in fourth place in their divisions play today at Wrigley Field. The Cubs are 17-24 in the National League Central, while the Mets are 16-23 in the National League East. First baseman Anthony Rizzo, who represented Italy at the World Baseball Classic, with nine home runs, 29 runs batted in and a .522 slugging percentage. While so far this season, the Mets have been led by third baseman David Wright, who leads the team with a .312 batting average, .418 on base percentage and a .536 slugging percentage.
Henrik Zetterberg (Dan Nicholas, Wikimedia Commons)
One of the most exciting times in the world of sports is simply game seven. That’s what we’ll have Sunday night in southern California as the Anaheim Ducks host the Detroit Red Wings.
Last night, Red Wings’ captain Henrik Zetterberg scored at 1:04 of overtime to give the Red Wings a 4-3 win over the Ducks to tie their Western Conference quarterfinal series at three games apiece.
The Red Wings might have a strong core of veterans, but after all these years are still getting it done. Goaltender Jimmy Howard is playing at an elite level as Detroit will look to move on during their last year in the Western Conference. How dangerous will Detrot be next year in the East? The answer is very. The game will be seen Sunday night on TSN at 8:00 p.m.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Saturday & Sunday– PGA–Players Championship–NBC–12 p.m.– Spain’s Sergio Garcia, probably one of the best golfers in the world to have never won a major, currently leads Tiger Woods by a stroke after shooting a -11 at Sawgrass over the first two days of competition. Garcia and Woods have won the Players Championship once before– Woods in 2001 and Garcia in 2008. As for the first round leader, American Roberto Castro, he went from -9 to -3 and 1st to 30th after shooting a 78 on Friday.
This week on 15MOF we look at the up-and-down Edmonton Oilers as they flirt with a playoff spot, the NHL’s Winter Classic announcement and we make our NCAA national championship predictions.
In the GABBYs: Traded NHLers, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Prince Fielder, Mike Rice, Vuvuzela attacks and the Blue Jays. The Punchline this week is the LA Lakers!
The Edmonton Oilers are in a playoff chase with 13 games left in the regular season. On Monday night in Edmonton, it was no April Fool’s joke. The Oilers were the more opportunistic team in defeating their provincial rival, the Calgary Flames by a score of 4-1 at Rexall Place.
Rookie defenceman Justin Schultz led the Oilers in scoring with a goal and two assists, while Taylor Hall, Ryan Jones and Nail Yakupov each had a goal and an assist in recording multi-point games themselves.
Like Saturday night in their win over Vancouver, the Oilers got off to a great start by scoring on three of their first five shots.
We’re coming to the second busiest sports month of the year. April. Where has March gone? I know.
Anyways. It is a huge weekend for the Edmonton Oilers as they will be hosting their two western Canadian foes– the Vancouver Canucks tonight (CBC, 8:00 p.m.) and the Calgary Flames on Easter Monday (Sportsnet, 7:30 p.m.).
With 15 games left on the schedule, the Oilers are three points back of the St. Louis Blues for a playoff spot. That means every five games, they will have to pick up a point on the Blues, and hope they are slightly better than three other teams that are in front of them– the Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
It appears Jarome Iginla is not going to Boston after all. In an amazing turn of events, the Calgary Flames have said no to the Bruins and yes to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
According to TSN, the Flames traded Iginla to Pittsburgh for college prospects Kenneth Agostino and Ben Hanowski and the Penguins’ first round draft choice.
It appears on the surface that a major reason why Flames General Manager Jay Feaster went with the Penguins offer over the Bruins is because the Flames received a guaranteed first overall pick from Pittsburgh. In the trade that was incorrectly reported by the media earlier in the evening, the Flames would only had received the first round pick from the Bruins if Iginla re-signed with the Bruins next year. Either way, Feaster will have a lot of explaining to do, as will TSN’s Aaron Ward who first announced the deal.
Iginla was a hot commodity because he was an unrestricted free agent.
This is the second time in Iginla’s career he has been involved in a blockbuster transaction. He was traded to Calgary from Dallas for Joe Nieuwendyk in 1995.
For the second time in a month, the Anaheim Ducks have opened up their pocket book and re-signed a top gun. This time it was former Hart Trophy and Rocket Richard Trophy winner Corey Perry.
Perry, who is currently second on the Anaheim Ducks in scoring with nine goals and fifteen assists for 24 points, signed an eight year contract worth $69 million.
The move comes ten days after the Ducks signed Ryan Getzlaf to an eight year deal worth $66 million. Getzlaf currently leads the Ducks with 11 goals and 22 assists for 33 points.
Getzlaf and Perry were both unrestricted free agents at the end of the season.
The Ducks have had a great 2013. They currently have the second best record in the NHL with 46 points, five points back of the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Calgary Flames are above the .500 mark after a 4-1 win over the San Jose Sharks at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday night.
Miikka Kiprusoff made his first start since February 5 against the Detroit Red Wings because of a sprained knee injury and dazzled in between the Flames pipes by making 32 saves. The Sharks tested Kiprusoff’s knee regularly as the veteran goaltender needed to get low regularly to make saves.
Captain Jarome Iginla led the Flames in scoring with a goal and an assist. Blake Comeau meanwhile scored his first of the season early in the third period to break a 1-1 deadlock.
In a bizarre hockey game Sunday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome, the Calgary Flames defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-2.
The Flames received their game winning goal from Jarome Iginla just moments after Canucks’ head coach Alain Vigneault was given a two minute bench penalty for his abuse on the officials. Vigneault did not like the fact that Matt Stajan was not called for an elbow penalty.
The ability for the Flames to respond after Vigneault’s tirade and not take a penalty themselves in the third period showed great deal of maturity.
The Calgary Flames delivered a heroic comeback Sunday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
With the game tied 4-4, Curtis Glencross scored with exactly one minute left in regulation, to give the Flames a dramatic 5-4 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes.
According to TSN, the Flames are now at 7-7-3 and are two points back of the San Jose Sharks for the eighth and final playoff spot in the tight Western Conference. Four points are currently separating 5th place and 13th place. The Flames are currently in twelfth position. The Oilers and Flames have the same record of 7-7-3, but the Flames have more regulation wins.
Glencross, who added an assist, was one of five Flames to have a multi-point game. Jarome Iginla scored twice, including the game tying goal with 1:23 left, while Lee Stempniak, Alex Tanguay and Chris Butler all had two assists.
The Calgary Flames went on an offensive scoring spirit Wednesday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Michael Cammalleri had a hat trick and added an assist for a four point game in a convincing 7-4 win over the Dallas Stars.
Roman Cervenka, Jarome Iginla, Lee Stempniak and Alex Tanguay also had multi-point games as the Flames improved to 4-4-3 on the season and are four points back of the St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The win by the Flames shouldn’t be that much of a surprise however. First, the Stars were playing their second game of a back-to-back after an impressive win the previous night in Edmonton, and the second reason is that Kari Lehtonen is a much better goaltender than Richard Bachman, who struggled mightily Wednesday in giving up 6 goals on 22 shots.
One of the more interesting questions Calgary Flames fans are asking to start the 2013 National Hockey League regular season is what the team should do with their captain, Jarome Iginla.
Iginla, is in the final year of his contract where he is making $7 million. Now with the Calgary Flames at two losses and an overtime loss to start the season in an abbreviated form due to the lockout, one needs to ask Flames General Manager Jay Feaster how patient he will be before he either trades his star player or signs him for a few more years at a discount price.
Last season, Iginla led the Flames with 32 goals, 67 points, 251 shots on goal and five game winning goals. So far this season, he leads the team with two assists and 16 shots on goal according to Yahoo! Sports. But one needs to question if he is worth $7 million at the age of 35? Is it a guarantee he will end his career in Calgary or want to play somewhere else to get his name on the Stanley Cup? Also, is he worth $7 million, when other players who also recorded 67 points last year make significantly less. P.A. Parenteau, had 67 points with the New York Islanders last year and signed with the Colorado Avalanche at $4 million a season for the next four years, according to www.nhlnumbers.com and Joffrey Lupul of the Toronto Maple Leafs had 67 points last year and makes $4.25 million in a much bigger hockey market.
It’s not often you find a World Record set in Chestermere Lake, in the town just east of Calgary, but on Wednesday, local sports fans saw just that.
Forty local players played hockey for ten and a half straight days, 246 straight hours, to head into the record books, setting the mark for the longest hockey game ever played. The final score? Team Cure defeated Team Hope 4,178-3,845. Dave Shillington, who used to play for the Calgary Royals of the Alberta Junior Hockey League led the way with 524 goals.
But the real winners this past week was the Alberta Children’s Hospital, who received $1.4 million in donations.
NHL players also came out to show their support. Calgary Flames captain Jarome Iginla was in attendance for part of the contest, while former Flame Brendan Morrison helped out as a referee. The game was also attended by country music star Paul Brandt, who sang his hit song I Was There.
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