Whether you were naughty or nice this year, Christmas is finally upon us…but are you in the holiday spirit yet?
If not, I’ve got just the thing for you!
For some people eggnog does the trick and for others it’s repetitive seasonal music, but for many of us, nothing says Christmas like funny holiday-themed viral videos made by sports teams! As soon as you see these gems start to appear, you know the big day is just around the corner…so consider this my present to you!
In honor of the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships getting underway on Boxing Day, let’s start with the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings singing “All I Want For Christmas Is You!”
Take it away boys:
(AFTER THE JUMP: The Panthers sing “Jingle Bells” and the Sharks are out with another beauty Christmas vid!)
We’re through another week of action in the NHL and I’ve got to say, this may have been the toughest one so far when it comes to whittling my list of potential Goals of the Week down to a top five!
Cracking the list this time around is a beautiful spinning backhander, some slick breakaway moves, a bit of between the legs magic, a clutch play from a young forward and a one-man show at the United Center!
Let’s go!
5. Tyler Bozak
Toronto’s Tyler Bozak checks in at number five this week, corralling some knee-high sauce from Phil Kessel and hitting the top shelf with a spinning backhander over the shoulder of Roberto Luongo. Beauty!
Christian Ehroff (Orland Kurtenbach, Wikimedia Commons)
Two defencemen on Canadian-based teams have signed long term deals south of the border.
On Friday, it was confirmed that the Buffalo Sabres have signed defenceman Christian Ehrhoff from the Vancouver Canucks to a ten year deal worth $40 million and the Columbus Blue Jackets have signed defenceman James Wisniewski from the Montreal Canadiens to a six year deal worth $33 million.
Ehrhoff had 14 goals and 36 assists last season and was a +19. Wisniewski had ten goals and 41 assists.
Wisniewski, however is going into a similar situation in Columbus as when he started the 2010-11 NHL season with the New York Islanders. There, Wisniewski was only a -18, compared to being a +4 with Montreal.
In other moves Friday morning, the Philadelphia Flyers have signed Jaromir Jagr to a one year deal worth $3.3 million. Jagr, who played last year in the Kontinental Hockey League, and was instrumental for Team Russia at the World Hockey Championships, still has a great offensive upside at 39 years of age.
The Sabres also improved their offense, signing Ville Leino to a six year deal worth $27 million. In 2009-10, Leino had career highs of 19 goals and 34 assists with the Flyers last season.
The Flyers also traded Kris Versteeg to the Florida Panthers for a pair of draft picks. The Lethbridge native had 46 points with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Flyers in 2010-11.
The Montreal Canadiens signed former Oiler Erik Cole to a four year worth $18 million from the Carolina Hurricanes and goaltender Peter Budaj to a two year deal worth $2.3 million from the Colorado Avalanche.
After the first round where I was red hot at 7-1, let’s see how things transpire in the Conference Semi-Finals.
WEST
(1) Vancouver Canucks vs. (5) Nashville Predators–The Vancouver Canucks are coming off an emotionally draining series where they knocked off their top nemesis, the Chicago Blackhawks. Will they have enough in the tank? I’m saying yes. But only if the Sedins show up. Daniel and Henrik Sedin were basically absent in the final four games in the Western Conference Quarterfinal, and will need a much better showing in round two. The issue with Nashville is they have an outstanding defense corps led by Shea Weber and Ryan Suter, but do they have a forward that can play the shut down defensive role like Dave Bolland did so effectively with the Blackhawks? I don’t think so, therefore Vancouver has the edge. On offense, the Canucks are also at an advantage. Don’t forget Nashville’s top scorer was Sergei Kostitsyn with 50 points. That’s right, the same Sergei Kostitsyn who lost his way, and could not get out of his brother’s shadow in Montreal. The Canucks take this one in five.
The Nashville Predators have advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
Sunday evening in Tennessee, the Predators defeated the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 to win the best-out-of-seven Western Quarterfinal Series 4-2.
Once again, it was an unsung hero that came up huge. Second year center Nick Spaling of Palmerston, Ontario, the Predators’ 2nd round pick, 58th overall, in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, scored twice, including the game winning goal at 4:53 of the third period. Spaling had never scored in the postseason before and had only eight career regular season goals in 102 games.
Another Predator that was huge in Game Six was Jordin Tootoo. The Churchill, Manitoba native who was raised in Nunavut, now has four assists in his last two games. Humorously, he also has 22 penalty minutes in the playoffs. Tootoo now has a career high five playoff points in 2011.
Tomorrow night the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin in Boston, San Jose and Philadelphia.
The Bruins have the significant edge in goaltending over the Canadiens. Tim Thomas was brilliant in between the pipes all season long, posting Vezina trophy caliber numbers of 35-11-9, with a 2.00 goals against average and .940 save percentage. The Bruins are extremely defensively sound and with Zdeno Chara leading the way on the Bruins’ blueline, the Canadiens will have limited opportunities to maximize their chances. Another Bruin that made huge strides in 2010 was Dennis Seidenberg, who led Boston in hits with 161, and blocked shots with 174. He’ll be counted on to perform at a high level to keep Chara fresh.
In evaluating the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the most competitive series may just be the series with the one versus eight seeds involved.
The Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers have immense talent for a number eight seed and will push the Vancouver Canucks and Washington Capitals deep into the series.
The Blackhawks don’t forget are the defending Stanley Cup Champions and have eliminated Vancouver from the playoffs the last two years. They will be led by Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa and Patrick Kane.
Once a year you grace us with your presence, teasing us with the prospect of blockbuster deals and momentum shifting swaps all in the name of gearing up for the playoffs/next season (depending on how things have gone up to this point, of course).
It’s been kind of a funny lead up to the “big day” this time around with a number of fairly significant moves since early February, but you just never know what will happen! The aim of this feature will be to try and stay updated on the latest trades up to (and beyond) that 1pm deadline and provide a bit of my own insight into each move!
Let’s get right to it (despite several alarms set, I couldn’t actually get up before 10am this year)! (more…)
It’s 15 Minutes of Fame for this week and Jim is in Mexico so it makes him a little hard to hear!
This week the boys talk a lot about the National Hockey League’s trade deadline. There have been lots of trades and the boys wonder if the Edmonton Oilers are going to get in on any of them.
Then in the GABBYs: On the good side – the resurgence of the Calgary Flames, the National Football League enters into mediated negotiations with the NFL players association and Peter Forsberg retires gracefully.
On the bad side: Peter Forsberg retires! Tiger Woods can’t do anything right and will the Canadian Soccer Association please pay the women players?
Check it out!
Lot’s more after the jump. Click “continue reading.” ———————> (more…)
Just when it looked like Peter Forsberg was ready to make an impact with the struggling Colorado Avalanche, a familiar problem crept up on him.
After skating with the team for a while, Forsberg felt comfortable enough on the ice to sign a one-year deal with the Avs last week. He jumped through the necessary hoops to get back on the ice after a couple of years – and a couple of failed comebacks – away from the NHL and finally made his re-debut against Columbus on Friday.
He played 17:38 and was a minus-two in a 3-1 loss to the Jackets, but looked pretty good by all accounts. A night later, he was a minus-two again in a 5-3 loss to the Predators, racking up another 17:32 of ice time. As good as he might have looked though, ESPN reports he started to feel the foot that has given him so much grief slipping and sliding inside his skate – a problem that has followed him around from team to team and league to league since 2003. (more…)
Whether you were naughty or nice this year, Christmas is finally upon us…but are you in the holiday spirit yet?
We’re through another week of action in the NHL and I’ve got to say, this may have been the toughest one so far when it comes to whittling my list of potential Goals of the Week down to a top five!
In & Out
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