This week on the show, we look at the tragic death of former NFL star Junior Seau and the latest bounty suspensions from that league, as well as news from the NHL that Raffi Torres is appealing his lengthy suspension. We also look at the situation in the Nashville Predators camp, along with speculation that the NY Islanders might soon have a new home.
In the GABBYs: Leo Messi, Jose Mourinho, Jered Weaver, the NY Knicks, the Montreal Canadiens and Jeremy Affeldt. The Punchline this week is, once again, the Charlotte Bobcats!
Another week has come and gone in the NHL, which means it’s once again time to count down the best of the best from around the league.
This week on the GOTW we’ve got a unusual looking penalty shot, a couple of bruising power forwards showing off some soft hands, a spin-o-rama overtime winner and a great breakaway dangle.
Let’s go!
5. Alexander Semin
It’s not everyday that you see a guy try a clapper on a penalty shot, but Washington Capitals forward Alex Semin did it to perfection this past week. The crazy part is that he winds up at the hash marks and puts it right into the top corner!
(AFTER THE JUMP: The rest of this week’s Top 5!) (more…)
We’re back for another week of action on “15 Minutes of Fame,” your favorite sports video blog’s favorite sports video blog! This week, we break down the first loss of the season for the Edmonton Eskimos as well as their upcoming tilt with the Montreal Alouettes, we discuss the chances that the NHL’s NY Islanders end up skipping town & Shea Weber’s new contract, and we look at the latest spittle-suspension from the MLB.
In the GABBYs: Mark Texiera, Toronto FC, the Green Bay Packers, tennis player Bojana Jovanovski , boxer Bobby Moreno and the NBA!
While most of the focus around the NHL this summer has been on the Unrestricted Free Agents, as it normally is, it has been a very interesting journey so far on the RFA side of things.
Nashville Predators captain Shea Weber won his arbitration battle with the team this week, putting pen to paper on a one year, $7.5-million contract. It’s the biggest award ever in an arbitration hearing and it also represents a $3-million raise for the burly d-man. Weber had 16 goals and 48 points in 82 games last season and was nominated for the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenceman, but the Preds were trying to get an arbitrator to agree that a $250,000 raise was fair…Nice try!
With Weber signed, the focus now shifts to LA Kings defenceman Drew Doughty, who is still without a contract.
Doughty is a few years younger than Weber, but his numbers are similar and his credentials are pretty much spot on – Fox Sports’ Dan Rosen points out that both players have won an Olympic gold medal, both have been nominated for a Norris Trophy and both have put up at least 90 points over the past two seasons (99 for Doughty, 91 for Weber). So, does Drew Doughty deserve Shea Weber money? (After the Jump: Will the NY Islanders move? Plus: Two crazy goals from the world of soccer!) (more…)
Another week has come and gone in the world of sports, and lucky for you, you’ve got Kerrzy and Geoff here to help break it all down! This week on 15 Minutes of Fame: Is Chris Osgood a Hall of Fame goalie? Are signing bonuses the new “front-loaded contract” in the NHL? Are the NY Islanders ACTUALLY thinking about bringing Alexei Yashin back? Also: How about those Eskimos!
In the GABBYs: Travis Snider (and his moustache), the Pittsburgh Pirates, Joe Sakic, NCAA and cycling accidents!
If you’re a soccer fan, you’re probably familiar with the term “cheeky penalty” – well, that phrase was given a whole new meaning last week!
It’s normally something you would use to describe a penalty shot that is taken in such a way that a goal is terribly embarrassing for the goalie and a miss is even more embarrassing for the player. Usually, a guy will take a purposeful run up to the ball, but then just gently chip it right down the middle, while the diving goalie angrily looks on.
United Arab Emirates winger Awana Diab took things to a whole other level and became an immediate star on the internet with his take on the cheeky penalty last Sunday in an international friendly against Lebanon.
With his side up 5-2, Diab took a few strides towards goal and then channeled his inner Francesco Totti, spinning around and striking the ball with his heel! It wasn’t the most fluid of movements and it wasn’t very well hit, but it was enough to fool the Lebanese keeper. It was also enough to earn him a yellow card and a quick substitution by his coach, who had only just brought him on minutes earlier! (After the Jump: Video of this PK plus a sick shootout goal and Steve Nash’s latest viral vid!)(more…)
Is Jim Balsillie’s dream of owning an NHL team back on track?
With reports of several teams staring down mounting piles of debt and at least one troubled club already heading back to a hockey-mad Canadian market, you have to think his number will come up eventually. Well, a Forbes magazine blog is dropping some hints that make it sound like it may come sooner rather than later!
Sports Money’s Mike Ozanian reported this week that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has told the Research In Motion co-CEO that if he “behaves himself and doesn’t create any more spectacles or bad publicity for the league, he will eventually get a team.” The NHL has denied that such a conversation took place, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it didn’t happen, of course.
Balsillie has tried three times to become the owner of an NHL team, but on each occasion he did something to make the league brass angry. The most high profile of those “spectacles” saw Balsillie try to circumvent league rules and buy the Phoenix Coyotes through a bankruptcy court, which of course ended in the NHL buying the team themselves. It’s now almost two years later and they still haven’t managed to sell the Coyotes… (more…)
It seems like that just isn’t the case in the NHL anymore, with the first two days of this week serving as an exclamation point to that notion. On Monday we saw an epic outing from a Duck and a Wing doing something no one else had done before him, while on Tuesday we witnessed an old Bear hitting yet another milestone!
When the current season started there were five players who were at least 40: Nick Lidstrom and Mike Modano of the Detroit Red Wings, Doug Weight of the NY Islanders, Teemu Selanne of the Anaheim Ducks and the senior of the group, Boston’s Mark Recchi who turned 43 on February 1st. Modano and Weight had their seasons cut short by injury, but for the rest of the 40+ crew it has been quite a ride. (more…)
If the National Hockey League is serious about headshots (and they claim to be), NY Islanders enforcer Trevor Gillies won’t be playing much hockey in the coming weeks after what transpired at the Nassau Coliseum in a 4-1 Isles upset of the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night.
Before we get into it, I’d like to pose a theoretical question to you: If your employer suspended you for two weeks without pay as a result of something you did that went against the company rules, how would you act when you were back on the job?
For most of us, the answer is probably that we would try to avoid the type of conduct that got us in trouble in the first place. For others, this is not the case. Take Trevor Gillies for example… (more…)
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…)
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…)
It’s been a feisty couple of weeks in the National Hockey League, hasn’t it?
In the past ten days we’ve seen a brawl in Pittsburgh between the Islanders and the Penguins, three fights in four seconds in a Bruins/Stars game, another goalie fight in an Original Six meeting between Boston and Montreal, and of course, the return match between the Pens and the Isles.
If you thought those first three games were good, just wait until you see what went down at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Friday!
After being shutout in the game that saw Penguins backup Brent Johnson break the face of their oft-injured goalie, Rick DiPietro, the Islanders were charged up heading into the rematch! In the first period alone there were four goals, a failed penalty shot, two fights and some hints of what was to come later on.
By the end of the night there were 346 penalty minutes, fifteen fighting majors, eleven game misconducts, and ten 10-minute misconducts. Oh, and 12 goals. (more…)
The Pittsburgh Penguins backup made 20 stops in a 3-0 win over the NY Islanders on Wednesday night at the Consol Energy Center, but failed to earn his second shutout of the season. Why, you ask?
Somebody turned the “Lights Out” with less than 17 seconds to go!
It all started when Pens forward Matt Cooke bumped into Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro late in the game, which led to some pushing and shoving in the NY zone. It also led to Brent Johnson taking a leisurely skate down the ice to have a little chat with his fellow netminder. (Video, plus more goalie fights after the jump!)(more…)
Things haven’t been great for the Edmonton Oilers since that last trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.
They’ve missed the playoffs in four straight seasons, with a franchise-worst fifth miss upcoming, there is a very real chance that they could finish dead last for a second straight year and there are some real question marks for the bosses to think about during the off-season…but is Edmonton really that bad of a place to play?
A CBC/NHLPA poll released over the weekend broached a wide range of topics, from best/most demanding coach, to the players’ favorite rink, to the instigator rule, to the league’s best referee. It also hit on a couple of things that Oilers fans have heard for a while now: The 300+ players polled say that Rexall Place has really good ice, but lots of players would rather not call Edmonton home. (more…)
Another week has come and gone in the NHL, which means it’s once again time to count down the best of the best from around the league.
Weber Money?
Is Jim Balsillie’s dream of owning an NHL team back on track?
Remember when 40 years old was old?
It seems like some guys just don’t learn…
In & Out
It’s been a feisty couple of weeks in the National Hockey League, hasn’t it?
Who knew Brent Johnson was a masher?!
Things haven’t been great for the Edmonton Oilers since that last trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.
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