Posts Tagged ‘new york rangers’


Two American goalies record shutouts Thursday

Friday, May 24th, 2013

Jimmy Howard (Anna Enriquez, Wikimedia Commons)

The fact that two American goalies recorded shutouts on Thursday should start raising some eyebrows.

Jimmy Howard was brilliant in the Red Wings’ 2-0 win over Chicago as he made 28 saves last night and Jonathan Quick was equally great for the Kings in making 24 saves in their 3-0 win over the San Jose Sharks. Detroit currently leads Chicago 3-1 and Los Angeles leads San Jose 3-2 in the Western Conference semi-finals.

The fact that American goaltenders are performing well when it matters most is continuing a recent trend. It is a trend that shows American goalies are doing better than Canadian netminders.

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Sharks get lucky call go their way in win over Kings

Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013

The San Jose Sharks have evened their series with the Los Angeles Kings 2-2 in the Western Conference semi-finals with a 2-1 win Tuesday night, but not without controversy.

On Tuesday evening, with the Sharks leading 2-0 in the second period, the Kings had a shot from the point from defenceman Slava Voynov, that was redirected by rookie Tyler Toffoli and into the net past Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi.

However, the play was inadvertedly whistled dead.  Kings veteran Dustin Penner argued the call, but to no avail.

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Senators deliver overtime magic against Penguins

Sunday, May 19th, 2013

The Ottawa Senators got back into their Eastern Conference semi-final series with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday night from the nation’s capital.

Checking-line forward Colin Greening scored at 12:21 of double overtime as the Senators defeated the Penguins 2-1. Pittsburgh still lead the series 2-1. It was the longest game played so far in the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs and the first to go to double overtime.

It was also a great comeback game for Senators goaltender Craig Anderson, who made 49 saves in between the Ottawa pipes.

In the other Eastern conference semi-final, the Boston Bruins defeated the New York Rangers 5-2 to take a 2-0 series lead. The Bruins were led offensively by Brad Marchand and Torey Krug, who each notched a goal and an assist, and by David Krejci and Patrice Bergeron who each notched two assists.

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Victoria Day Weekend Sports Preview–May 18-20–NHL, NBA, MLB, Horse Racing & World Hockey Championships

Saturday, May 18th, 2013

Sidney Crosby (Michael Miller, Wikimedia Commons)

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.

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Bruins continue to win tight games in Stanley Cup Playoffs

Friday, May 17th, 2013

The Boston Bruins have taken a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semi-final with a very close win over the New York Rangers on Thursday night.

Brad Marchand scored with 4:20 left in the first overtime as the Bruins defeated the Rangers 4-3.

It was a very impressive win for the Bruins mostly because of the amount of injuries on the Boston blueline. On defense the Bruins had rookies Torey Krug, Dougie Hamilton and Matt Bartkowski to replace the injured Dennis Seidenberg, Wade Redden and Andrew Ference.

Krug in fact scored his first NHL career goal to send the game into overtime.

The win was the Bruins third overtime win in a row. Another Bruin that deserves praise is defenceman Zdeno Chara, who played 38:02 in game one. He also had a goal and an assist, was a +2 and had nine shots on goal.

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Bruins deliver remarkable comeback in game 7

Monday, May 13th, 2013

With just over ten minutes remaining tonight it looked all but certain that the Toronto Maple Leafs would advance to the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

Then a comeback of the ages started to take place. Down 4-1, the Bruins scored three unanswered third period goals before Patrice Bergeron capped off the remarkable comeback in overtime. The final two regulation goals, one from Milan Lucic, the other from Bergeron, came in the last 1:22 of the contest. The Bruins won the series 4-3 with the 5-4 victory, but in the process stunned hockey fans around the continent.

With the win, the Bruins will face the New York Rangers in round 2. The Rangers got a dominating performance by their entire franchise in a game 7 victory over the Washington Capitals. Henrik Lundqvist made 35 saves, while Steve Eminger and Derick Brassard has two assists each in a 5-0 Rangers win and a 4-3 series victory.

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Rangers and Maple Leafs force game seven tonight

Monday, May 13th, 2013

Henrik Lundqvist (Robert Kowal, Wikimedia Commons)

Two original six teams forced a game seven on Monday night.

At the Madison Square Garden in New York Sunday afternoon, Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves as the New York Rangers defeated the Washington Capitals 1-0 in game six of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal. This series is now tied up at three games apiece heading into the American national capital city this evening.

The lone Rangers goal came in the second period on a goal from Derick Brassard from John Moore and Mats Zuccarello of Oslo, Norway.

It was a bit of a tough game for Capitals rookie Tom Wilson.

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Weekend Sports Preview–May 11-12–NHL, WHL, World Hockey Championship & PGA

Saturday, May 11th, 2013

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.

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Krejci delivers in Bruins win over Maple Leafs Wednesday

Thursday, May 9th, 2013

David Krejci (Dan Nicholas, Wikimedia Commons)

The Boston Bruins are in the driver’s seat in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal. On Wednesday evening in Toronto, David Krejci recorded a hat trick, including the overtime winner as Boston beat Toronto 4-3 to take a 3-1 series lead.

The biggest story however has come the Leafs’ significant others, where actress Elisha Cuthbert (fiancee of captain Dion Phaneuf) gave an uncomfortable glance toward April Reimer (wife of James Reimer). It was Phaneuf who gave the puck up to Krejci on his own blueline.

In other action, two other games went to overtime. Slava Voynov scored in overtime to give the Los Angeles Kings a 3-2 win and a 3-2 series lead in their Western Conference quarterfinal series against the St. Louis Blues. While in Anaheim, the Ducks got an overtime winner from Nick Bonino in  a 3-2 win to take a 3-2 series lead over the Detroit Red Wings.

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Brunner pulls Red Wings even with the Ducks

Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

Just when you seem to think the Detroit Red Wings were showing their age and looked vulnerable on defense, they got right back into their Western Conference quarterfinal series with the Anaheim Ducks on Monday.

Damien Brunner scored at 15:10 of overtime last night to give Detroit a 3-2 win over Anaheim to tie their best out of seven series at 2-2.

Brunner scored on the rebound after Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller made a huge save on Gustav Nyquist.

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Could the Maple Leafs ever be Canada’s team?

Monday, May 6th, 2013

There will be great excitement at the Air Canada Centre this evening as the Toronto Maple Leafs are heading home for game three of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Series against the Boston Bruins.

On the weekend the Maple Leafs shocked the hockey world with a convincing 4-2 win over Boston. Former Edmonton Oiler Joffrey Lupul of Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta notched two goals in Toronto’s victory.

However even though the Maple Leafs are the underdogs. I don’t hear many Canadians cheering for them unless they have strong familial connections to southern Ontario, or they took a gamble by loading up with Maple Leafs in their hockey pool.

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Weekend Sports Preview–May 4 & 5–NHL, WHL, NLL, MLB & World Hockey Championships

Saturday, May 4th, 2013

The 2013 World Men’s Hockey Championships will commence this weekend with Canada playing two games in Stockholm. The first will be against Denmark on Saturday (TSN, 8:00 a.m.) and the second will be against Switzerland on  Sunday (TSN2, 8:00 a.m.).

There are four Oilers and one Flame on Team Canada. Jordan Eberle, Justin Schultz, Devan Dubnyk and Taylor Hall are the Oilers, while T.J. Brodie is the lone Calgary Flame.

Other notable players representing Team Canada are Phoenix Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith, Carolina Hurricanes sniper Eric Staal, Florida Panthers defenceman Brian Campbell (defending Lady Byng winner) and Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos, who was second in the NHL in scoring with 29 goals and 57 points. (more…)

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Franzen continues to shine in the playoffs

Friday, May 3rd, 2013

Johan Franzen (Dan Nicholas, Wikimedia Commons)

There are players that are simply best suited for the playoffs over the regular season. One of those players is Detroit Red Wings’ left winger Johan Franzen.

On Thursday evening in Anaheim, Franzen scored twice as the Red Wings evened their series with the Anaheim Ducks at one with a 5-4 overtime win. Franzen now has 38 playoff goals in 88 games, a much better goal to game ratio than he has in the regular season, where he has 164 goals in 513 career games.

The Red Wings also got production by another Swede. This time Gustav Nyquist, who scored his first career playoff goal on Thursday. It happened to be in overtime.

In other action, Craig Anderson made 48 saves as Ottawa beat Montreal 4-2 to take a 1-0 series lead, Braden Holltby made 35 saves as Washington beat the New York Rangers 3-1 to take a 1-0 series lead as well, and Barret Jackman scored with 51 seconds left as St. Louis beat Los Angeles 2-1 to take a 2-0 series lead.

In the Senators/Canadiens series, Lars Eller of the Canadiens got injured after being hit in the head area by Eric Gryba of the Senators at his own blueline. Gryba was given a five minute major for interference.

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NHL Playoff Preview

Tuesday, April 30th, 2013

The 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs start this evening. It should be no secret. The Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks were by far the two best teams in the regular season. But does that mean they will be the two best playoff teams?

The answer this year is yes. The Blackhawks not only had 77 points in 48 games to lead the NHL, they also had a +53 in the for and against ratio. The Penguins meanwhile led the East with 72 points and were a +46. The second seeds of Montreal and Anaheim were well back in their respective conferences and will struggle immensely just to advance to round two.

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