The Pittsburgh Penguins are once again out with one of their star players, however this time his name is not Sidney Crosby.
On the weekend the Penguins put Evgeni Malkin on the injury reserve with a concussion. Malkin had scored four goals and 17 assists in 18 games. Obviously his numbers were off from his Hart Trophy and Art Ross Trophy numbers from last season, but Malkin is still an elite player in the NHL when he wants to be.
Malkin joins a long list of notable players currently out with a head trauma injury. The list includes Marc Savard of the Boston Bruins, Jeff Skinner of the Carolina Hurricanes, Rene Bourque of the Montreal Canadiens, Ryan Carter of the New Jersey Devils, Darroll Powe of the New York Rangers, Guillaume Latendresse of the Ottawa Senators, Chris Pronger of the Philadelphia Flyers and Vladimir Tarasenko of the Saint Louis Blues.
Awareness of concussions is greater today than ever before, however players are still experiencing them as an injury. It will be interesting to see if the NHL will make a statement or consider greater disciplinary measures against enforcers if the numbers continue to grow.
After rather a slow start in the World Hockey Championships in Helsinki, Team Canada got back on track today with a huge 5-3 win over the host Finns.
This game was a tale of two separate games. Finland dominated the first half of the contest and Canada dominated the second half. The big difference? It was clearly Sherwood Park, Alberta’s Cam Ward who had 35 saves, and made some of the remarkable variety.
Offensively, Team Canada was led by Jeff Skinner, John Tavares and Duncan Keith who each had two points. Meanwhile, Winnipeg’s Evander Kane scored the game winning goal in the third period.
One area where Team Canada must improve is their special teams. Despite the 4-0-1 record (only loss came in overtime to the Americans last weekend), their penalty killing so far has been weak and their power play is disorganized. But what did a Brent Sutter coached team do on the power play all year this past season? Nothing! Sorry Flames fans.
Even though Team Canada will probably be in first place once the round robin finishes, don’t forget they finished in first place last year with an undefeated record and then lost to Russia in the quarterfinals.
The Edmonton Oilers won’t have Taylor Hall in the lineup for the last six games of their regular season. Last night the Oilers made the announcement that Hall would undergo immediate shoulder surgery but should be ready for the start of the 2012-13 NHL regular season.
Hall apparently injured his shoulder initially while playing junior hockey, but the injury got worse over time.
My initial reaction is the following–Were the Oilers management aware of Hall’s injury when they drafted him? Did the people that represent Hall and his needs inform Oilers management of Hall’s injury? But first and foremost, does Hall’s long-time shoulder problem make him significantly injury prone like teammates Ryan Whitney and Ales Hemsky have been the last couple of years?
If Tambellini and Lowe were aware of Hall’s shoulder issues, would they have drafted Hall over Tyler Seguin and Jeff Skinner? Hall has played well over the first two seasons over his young career, but could have been better if he had his shoulder looked after sooner!
It’s that time again folks – we’re back with a fresh episode of everyone’s favorite internet sports show: 15 Minutes of Fame!
This week on the show we’re talking about another concussion-filled week in the NHL, and going through the list of hired and fired coaches from around the league. As well, we react to the big news from last week in the CFL: The Edmonton Eskimos traded quarterback Ricky Ray, the face of the franchise, to the Toronto Argonauts.
In the GABBYs: Derek Jeter, Tebowing, Patrick Chan, the National Basketball League, fighting in hockey, Jerry Sandusky’s lawyers. The Punchline this week is the washrooms at the MTS Centre!
The issue of concussions is currently a major story in the National Hockey League.
On Thursday, the Philadelphia Flyers announced that former Edmonton Oiler and Norris Trophy winner Chris Pronger will be out for the rest of the regular season and playoffs due to a concussion.
Pronger has one goal and 11 assists in 13 games played this season. He also has 27 blocked shots and 15 hits.
The issue of concussions is currently a very hot topic throughout the NHL. We have had Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins out to start the season, come back temporarily, before leaving again. When he’ll be back is now anyone’s guess.
Pronger’s teammate in Philadelphia, Claude Giroux, is also out with a concussion after being kneed to the head on the weekend. Giroux currently leads the NHL with 39 points.
Two other players that are also out with concussions are Calder Trophy winner Jeff Skinner of the Carolina Hurricanes and Milan Michalek of the Ottawa Senators, who leads the NHL in goals with 19.
Another week has come and gone in the NHL, and half of another week has also come and gone, but I’ve finally got the Goals of the Week for you, from the week of November 21st.
It was quite the week in the league – a triumphant return for a young star, another couple of stars in the making continued to rack up the highlight reel goals, and a couple of veterans showed off their dangles as well. This week in the What the Puck section, you’ll see the many sides of Cal Clutterbuck’s game!
5. Jason Spezza
Jason Spezza is off to a hot start this season, and that was really showcased on Sunday when he took a pass up the middle of the ice, skated through three Hurricanes players and beat Cam Ward with a nice move. (See the GOTW after the jump!) (more…)
The young guys dominate this latest round of the Goals of the Week, after another solid set of games and ginos!
As we hit the one-month mark of the season, we’ve got some more nice goals for you, including a rocket snipe, a nice d-man dangle, some breakaway gold and a bit of puck-on-a-string type magic. This week’s “What the Puck” moment was an absolute no-brainer – can you guess what it was?
Here we go!
5. Michael Del Zotto
The Rangers defenceman comes in at number five this time around, capping off a nice transition play by taking a pass in the slot and sliding the puck past a sprawling Carey Price. (After the Jump: ALL of the week’s best goals!)(more…)
Not a bad evening for me in predicting the NHL Awards.
I got five of the seven right, with the only two incorrect, the Hart Trophy and Norris Trophy.
I still completely disagree with awarding Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings with the Norris Trophy for best defenceman of the year. It should be a non-starter to award a Norris Trophy to a minus-player, regardless of your outstanding hockey resume. Lidstrom has now won his seventh Norris Trophy. Only Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins has more with eight. I feel Lidstrom won the award based more on his reputation for his outstanding performances over the last decade rather than this season, which should have come into the equation significantly more.
Regarding the Hart, the voters went with Corey Perry of the Anaheim Ducks over Daniel Sedin (my choice) of the Vancouver Canucks. They decided to focus more on the word “valuable” in deciding the winner this year than the word “best”. I have no problem with that, because if it wasn’t for Perry’s outstanding last two months in the regular season, the Ducks don’t even make the playoffs.
But, I was right with Jeff Skinner (Calder), Tim Thomas (Vezina), Dan Bylsma (Art Ross), Martin St. Louis (Lady Byng) and Ryan Kesler (Selke).
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.
The guys from “15 Minutes of Fame” are back at it for another week, breaking down the top stories from across the world of sports. This week, we’re discussing the Boston Bruins winning the Stanley Cup (and the city of Vancouver’s reaction), we make some NHL Awards & Entry Draft predictions, and the Edmonton Eskimos kick off the preseason!
In the GABBYs: The Capitals run up the score, Boston continues to win, Terry keeps his tattoo and lots more!
Canada improved to a perfect 2-0 this morning at the World Hockey Championships in Kosice, Slovakia.
Jeff Skinner of the Carolina Hurricanes, the favourite for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, scored two goals and one assist as Canada defeated France 9-1.
Skinner, an 18 year-old native of Markham, Ontario, scored his second goal for Canada on a penalty shot.
Other Canadian players with multi-point games included Jason Spezza of the Ottawa Senators (one goal, one assist), Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets (one goal, one assist), Alex Pietrangelo of the St. Louis Blues (one goal, one assist), John Tavares of the New York Islanders (two assists) and Dion Phaneuf of the Toronto Maple Leafs (two assists).
James Reimer of the Toronto Maple Leafs was in net for the majority of the game, but left the game for Devan Dubnyk of the Edmonton Oilers when the score reached 7-1.
French goalie Cristobal Huet struggled between the pipes, and was pulled after the first period when the score was 3-0 Canada. The scouting report on Huet is that he is great down low, but struggles when shooters go high. That’s where Skinner and Buffalo’s Marc-Andre Gargnani scored on Huet in the opening twenty minutes.
Jordan Eberle of the Edmonton Oilers scored twice Friday afternoon as Team Canada defeated Team Belarus 4-1 at the World Hockey Championships in Kosice, Slovakia.
Eberle opened the scoring for Canada and then put the puck past Belarussian goaltender Andrei Mezin again in the third period.
Eberle was electric on the ice throughout the game. There was one shift where he delivered a remarkable pass to team captain Rick Nash, another shift where he drew a penalty which put Canada on the power play and another shift where he had a takeaway on a Belarussian offensive play involving Mikhail Grabovski of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
As I was watching the Carolina Hurricanes/Montreal Canadiens game this evening, one question was going through my mind throughout the entire first period.
What if? What if the Oilers had drafted Jeff Skinner over Taylor Hall? Did the media blow the Taylor vs. Tyler rivalry out of proportion?
Don’t get me wrong. Taylor Hall may be still be the best player in the 2010 NHL draft class. But in my opinion, there was nothing that told me that he was the most superb player in the entire draft.
Tonight was the first time I had seen the Hurricanes for a while. I remember being impressed with Skinner earlier in the year when the Carolina Hurricanes knocked off the Minnesota Wild twice in Prague to start the year. But at that time he was seeing significant amount of ice time with Eric Staal, and I thought he was basically just a beneficiary of Staal’s prowess.
Well that didn’t happen tonight. Skinner was in complete control and scored two highlight reel goals. His offensive prowess even led to Pierre McGuire saying that Skinner and Cam Fowler should have been more in the conversation more last spring. Um! I think someone else said that too? Please feel free to reread my very first article for AnySportAnytime.
It’s Monday morning and that means a new 15 Minutes of Fame video, folks.
This week, Jim and Geoffrey talk about the Edmonton Oilers, who have a couple of wins in the past little while. Find out if Jim thinks that this is what we should’ve expected for the Oilers this season.
Then, we revisit Jim and Geoff’s NHL all-star teams from earlier this season. Find out if Jim’s all-star is better than Geoff’s!
In the GABBYs: On the good side – the NHL handing out suspensions, Taylor Hall creeping up the NHL rookie scoring race, and England steals the ashes away from Australia in cricket action.
On the bad side – the golden-voiced Ted Williams is in rehab, Lebron James gets bowled over by Karma and should animals be subjected to predicting proffesional league games?
In Quick Hits: Geoff and Jim are hosting a live round-table hot stove in the coming months. Tune in to find out when and where you can meet these fantastic-looking guys!
Check it out:
Lot’s more after the jump. Click “continue reading.” ———————>
What’s that old saying – better late than never?
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