Bettman Approves Schedule Change

Thank God. It looks like the old schedule format is coming back next season, with the teams playing their division opponents 6 times each and all opponents from the opposite conference. This is a very smart move, as some of the names in the East like Ovechkin, Crosby, Lecavalier and the like have more opportunity to play in the West and draw some crowds.

Red Wings 4 Lightning 2

Total domination in the first period, and a game of people stepping up when the top line has an off day. Kopecky's fake on Denis to give the Wings their 3rd goal was sweet. Detroit could have easily won this won 7-2 if a few posts had gone their way. Also, a nice performance by Hudler as the team played well without Drapes and Malts.

Toronto vs Montreal

In my opinion, the best rivalry in the NHL. Tonight, they went to their 6th shootout in their last 7 meetings. I love that I get to watch the non Hockey Night In Canada games with this Center Ice Online package! After about a 20 minute delay because of teams arguing with each other and the referees about how the zambonis resurfaced the ice between the end of overtime and the beginning of the shootout, Montreal won in 5 rounds. It was also the first NHL game I've been able to watch on Canada's TSN.........great coverage! I think they're an offshoot of ESPN.

Red Wings 5 Flames 3

What can I say? Pavel Datsyuk is amazing with the puck. Although I continue to rip on him and will continue to do so until I see some consistent positive play, hats off to Lilja for standing up to Phaneuf after he laid out Jiri Hudler.

Saturday 11/24

Observations while doing laundry and cycling through the games on Center Ice Online........


Phoenix 5 Toronto 1: Two teams going in opposite directions early in the season. Phoenix has been playing well since acquiring Bryzgalov, who was solid again tonight, and the Leafs look like they need some major changes because they did not come to play...again

Calgary 5 Colorado 2: The Avs have looked either really good or really bad in their games so far. Calgary had no problem skating around their defense

Buffalo 3 Montreal 0: The Sabres definitely have the best play by play announcer in the league. This guy sounds about 70 years old and screams and sounds like he has a heart attack everytime the Sabres score. Thibault was brilliant in a must win road game for the struggling Sabres

Philadelphia 4 Ottawa 3: Best game of the night. Philly started to show a little more step than Ottawa midway through the second after taking the 4-3 lead.

Islanders 2 Boston 1: Poor teams with ugly jerseys that get no publicity. Former Michigan Wolverine Andy Hilbert nets his first goal of the year

Washington 5 Carolina 2: The Caps, who are 2-0 since firing their coach, net 3 power play goals against the division leaders. One thing I'm starting to notice about Ovechkin is that he overdramatically celebrates every single goal he scores. Settle down buddy and make the playoffs

Pittsburgh 5 Atlanta 0: This is the first time I've seen Atlanta goalie Ondrej Pavelec in action this season. Yup...................

New Jersey 3 Tampa Bay 2: Brodeur was absolutely brilliant in this one and the Devils fed off of it in the second period with 3 goals. I personally hope the Devils miss the playoffs again this year. It was nice not having them around.

Minnesota 4 Nashville 3: Always nice to see the Preds lose and their mostly ignorant fans go home unhappy

Edmonton 3 Chicago 2 (SO): Dwayne Roloson punches Patrick Kane in the waning seconds of overtime, then stones him en route to victory...HA! It's weird having an interest in Blackhawk games now that they're actually competing.

Los Angeles 2 San Jose 1: California teams.....yawn.......Oh, didn't one win the cup last year?

Michigan Still Rolling

BIG weekend for the Wolverines, as they sweep the annual college hockey showcase with a 3-2 win over Wisconsin and a 5-1 win over Minnesota today. That's right, MICHIGAN BEAT MINNESOTA, the team that has seemingly owned them over the past decade in regular season and NCAA tournament play. This win also avenges Michigan's only loss this season thus far. Miami (Ohio) swept a pathetic Canisius team this weekend, so the Redhawks and the Wolverines are still battling for the top rank in the country.

Blue Jackets 3 Red Wings 2 (SO)

Well, the first long run of Central Division matchups is over, and the Red Wings come out with 4 wins, 4 losses and tonights shootout loss. The Wings will also be on top of the division by either 6 or 5 points, depending on the outcome of the Hawks/Oilers game, which is going on right now. Osgood, again, stood on his head in this game to get the Wings a point. I still think he should be the starter all season long with Hasek filling in when Ozzie is tired.

That fight between Downey and Boll was phenomenal! I loved when Downey was waving off the linesman when they were trying to come in to break up the fight.

Flames come in to town next. They haven't been playing to well lately and are under .500, but they did bitchslap Colorado tonight. I'll be at the Tampa Bay game on Thursday.....

Predators 3 Red Wings 2

Close game. The difference? Mason > Hasek.

Red Wings 3 Blues 0

Total domination from the start! Ozzie made a few nice saves on the few shots that came his way, and the Wings score in the first minute.

Take that, St. Louis a-holes.

Red Wings 5 Blue Jackets 4 (SO)

The greatest thing about this game was not the fact that the Wings ended their losing streak, but that Aaron Downey WAS in the lineup and Dallas Drake WAS NOT. Drake has been, for the most part, a waste of space and a poor pickup for the Red Wings.

Andres Lilja, who is my current least favorite Red Wing, took an unbelievably stupid penalty in this game. On a positive note, Pavel Datsyuk got a much needed goal, tying the game late in the third, and Johan Franzen, who has struggled all season offensively, got the shootout winner which could spark him over the next few weeks.

On another note, I posted a message in the letsgowings.com forum on this game predicting that this game will end up in a shootout. Yeah, I definitely will beat my drum when I'm right about something.

Blues next......can't wait to see that one

LET'S GO BLUE!

No, not the underachieving, overhyped football program that once again proved its at-best mediocrity among the alleged powerhouses today after laying down to the Buckeyes, I'm talking Michigan Hockey! After being eliminated last year in the NCAA tourney and losing a strong senior class, I thought this season would be a tough one for the Wolverines.

But in the words of Lee Corso, "Not so fast my friend!"

Michigan is off to an 11-1 start and 8-0 in the CCHA and are ranked #2 in the country behind Miami (Ohio), who swept Michigan State this weekend. We'll see what this team is made of next week when they play Wisconsin and Minnesota, who gave them their only loss this season thus far.

GO BLUE!

Blackhawks 5 Red Wings 3

This goes beyond a vintage Red Wings loss where they outshoot the hell out of the opponent and either lose or win a close one. Giving up 3 shorthanded goals in a game is ridiculous. Hasek also is not looking sharp at all this year thus far. Oh, and speaking of sharp, they allowed Patrick Sharp to score 3 in the third period to lose their 3rd game in a row and 4th to the Blackhawks. It was clear to me in the last two Blackhawk wins that they were much faster than the Wings.

Wake up, boys. The Blackhawks own you this season like Ohio State owns Michigan

Saturday 11/17

Saturday nights are the best hockey nights of the week, but I missed all the games (worked 4-2 tonight). Thank god for NHL Center Ice Online, which I purchased yesterday. It streams all the highlights I missed in a format 20 times better than the free Yahoo (see earlier post). Plus I can watch any game at anytime live or replayed on the computer when I'm bored.

Phoenix 1 Los Angeles 0: I don't know what it is about these west coast teams that bore the hell out of me. Nice job by Bryzgalov with a shutout in his first game in a new uniform

Toronto 3 Ottawa 0: If there were no Red Wings, I'd be a Leafs fan (thanks to exposure on CBC in Detroit) HUGE win against the top team in the east and rival.

Montreal 7 Boston 4: Montreal's offense is outstanding. 7 goals on 52 shots, and they outshot the Bruins 25-8 in the 3rd. It'll be fun watching them play Ottawa in the Eastern Finals this year (little prediction)

New Jersey 6 Philadelphia 2: The Devils scored 2 goals on 2 shots this period.....terrible.

Rangers 4 Pittsburgh 3 (OT): Rough start this season for the Penguins. Rangers have won 9 of 10 and got all 4 goals from defensemen........What makes me laugh is that Malkin and Crosby are a combined -3 this season

St. Louis 3 Nashville 2 (Shootout): Every Central Division match up this week has gone down to the wire. Wings better wake the f**k up because these other 4 teams are playing for real. Hannu Toivonen should get credit for a win and a half, as Nashville out shot the Blues 37-20

Calgary 3 Edmonton 1: Oilers Suck

Anaheim 2 San Jose 1 (Shootout): Best game of the night from two of the best in the west. Great goaltending! There were some unbelievable saves in this one. On a side note, I think the Sharks have the good-looking-jersey think finally figured out

Central Division.....Powerhouse?

Central	GP	W	L	OTL	Pts	GF	GA	Home	Road	L10
Detroit	18	13	4	1	27	61	41	7-1-0	6-3-1	8-2-0
Nashville	18	10	7	1	21	53	52	6-2-0	4-5-1	8-1-1
Columbus	18	9	6	3	21	47	42	6-2-1	3-4-2	5-3-2
Chicago	19	10	8	1	21	57	58	6-5-0	4-3-1	5-4-1
St. Louis	15	8	7	0	16	39	37	5-3-0	3-4-0	4-6-0

There's the Central Standings thus far. That's a big start for this division, which is usually a cakewalk for the Wings. The last few seasons have come down to Detroit and Nashville, with the Wings pulling away in the last month or two to win the division; and St. Louis, Chicago and Columbus haven't come close to contending for the playoffs.

Currently, the division is the only one with all teams with a .500 or better winning percentage. Every other division has at least two teams under .500 right now. This will make this current run of division games for the Red Wings, which is already off to a rough start, HUGE this early in the season.

Also, don't forget, that even though the St. Louis Blues are in last place they have played 3 or 4 games less than all the other teams, so they are right in the thick of it as well.

One team that I am surprised with is Nashville. They lost some key players in Tomas Vokoun, Paul Kariya and Peter Forsberg in the offseason, but have still managed a solid start thus far. Guys like Martin Erat, Vernon Fiddler, David Legwand, J.P. Dumont and the young Alexander Radulov have stepped it up on the offensive side thus far, and goalie Dan Ellis has an impressive 1.35 goals against average in 4 wins as a backup.

Columbus is getting big contributions from superstar Rick Nash and goalie Pascal Leclaire, who already has 5 shutouts this season. Chicago's big start is thanks to rookie sensations Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, who have a combined 37 points to start the season. Furthermore, former Red Wings Jason Williams and Robert Lang are in the top 4 in team scoring.

As for the Red Wings, well.....they always seem to find their way to the top of the Central early, but unlike previous years, there are 4 teams good enough to hunt them down and catch them.

Jackets/Blues tonight.

The Shootout

It's great to watch.....but after watching highlights of last nights Edmonton vs Vancouver game which was still scoreless heading into a shootout, I felt bad for the goalies. Garon (29 saves) and Luongo (19 saves) put on an incredible display of goaltending through 3 periods and 5 minutes of overtime, and to reward their efforts they each get three breakaways heading their way. The shootout to me is kind of anti-climactic after a close game. I wanna see who will score next in a regular flowing game. How about a continuous 4 on 4 overtime in the regular season? No ties, someone will eventually score and it will likely not go all night with less players on the ice. Disagree? Well then kiss my ass.......


......just kidding


No really I hate you

Sidney Crosby.............

.............WHO CARES

The best player in the NHL is Vincent Lecavalier. He passed Sidney Crosby and my boy Henrik Zetterberg last night for the points lead with an amazing hat trick against Carolina in a 6-1 victory. I think this guy should be put right up there with all the big names in the NHL and no one pays attention because he plays in the unpopular, yet Stanley Cup Finals producing (Carolina, Tampa Bay, Washington since 1998) southeast division. Plus, he has had one thing that Sid the Kid doesn't have.......THE CUP. I'm not a Crosby hater at all, he is awesome to watch. Just bringing to light those that don't get talked about in the shadow of "The Kid"

Yahoo! Sports

For those of you who are unaware, Yahoo! Sports compiles and streams all the relevant highlights from the original game broadcasts of almost every regular season game. They also have a schedule of games that they stream live throughout the regular season. Check it out.

Post #1

Good day all,

I decided to start this blog for a few different reasons

1) Wings game just ended and there's no other game on (there would be tons of games on if WOW carried NHL Center Ice, but thats a whole different story)
2) I like to talk about hockey but usually can't find many that know what the hell is going on in the league, mainly because of the declining popularity (even here in "Hockeytown")
3) I'm really digging deep to find something to do

So anyway.....here's some of my hockey interest background and where I stand on teams and such

- I'm a pretty hardcore Detroit Red Wings fan, although my intensity in rooting for them declined a little bit following the 2002 cup. It's gaining again, especially after they were an Andres Lilja terrible-f***ing turnover away from going up 3-2 in the Western Finals last year, but it's not the same as it was back then. I think I kind of peaked as a fan at that time because I didn't think it could get any better. It was really the dream season and playoff run... I mean, they had a team full of superstars that all gave up time for each other and it just worked perfectly; they came back from being down 0-2 in the first round and won games 3-4 in Vancouver; they chased the then-hated Avalanche and Patrick Roy out of town in Game 7 of the Western Finals and shut down Carolina in the Stanley Cup finals. However, I am excited about the emergence of some of the players around the stars and how last year's playoff experience will help them evolve this season.

- I love college hockey as much as the NHL. My team is Michigan, and there is NO BETTER place to watch a game than at the age-old Yost Ice Arena.

- I have every single Stanley Cup Finals game on tape all the way back to Colorado-Florida 1996, and several 1st, 2nd and 3rd Round games. I also have highlight tapes off all goals/good fights from Red Wings wins or ties all the way back to 1996

- Teams I dislike are tough to call in the NHL........... I used to hate the Avs back when the teams hated each other, but that's all but dead. The only time I hear about them is when my roommate, who's an Avs fan, watches or talks about them and reminds me they exist. I can't stand Predator fans after going to a game down in Nashville and having snowballs thrown at me by their fans for wearing a Wings jersey, but the Wings knocked them out in the first round that year......I guess that leaves Chicago and St. Louis, mainly because they always chant "Detroit Sucks" at their games and that's all they have to show for it....Chicago hasn't made the playoffs since the fall of the Berlin wall (they probably will this year though) and the Wings have knocked out St.Louis in their last 26 playoff meetings

As for college, I naturally hate Michigan State, and it makes me sick that they came out of nowhere to win the National Championship after getting hot late. I personally think college hockey should have at least best of three playoff series in the NCAA tournament because of the nature of the sport

So that's a little bit of intro.....feel free to comment, talk shit if you hate the wings/michigan, and whatever else

-Dan