Penner — who has been derided for a lack of conditioning over his career and once actually injured himself eating pancakes — has apparently decided to just go ahead and embrace the fat joke.
Welcome to a weekly blog post of thoughts and observations from the past few days and/or decades of NHL hockey.
The Three Stars of Comedy
Recognizing the three moments or personalities from around the league that produced the most comedic fodder for fans this week.
The third star: April Reimer and Elisha Cuthbert, for about five minutes
It sure looked like Mrs. James Reimer and Soon-To-Be-Mrs. Dion Phaneuf were exchanging death stares and eye rolls after their husbands combined to give up Boston’s overtime winner in Game 4 on Wednesday.
Tragically, it turned out not to be true, as the two confirmed via Twitter within minutes. Social media ruins everything. But we’ll always have those precious fleeting moments when we all thought we’d witnessed one of the great post-goal scowling contests of all time.
Welcome to a weekly blog post of thoughts and observations from the past few days and/or decades of NHL hockey.
What Has Don Cherry Gone and Done Now?
Whether it’s Coach’s Corner, his regular media appearances, or a Twitter account that’s presumably meant to be performance art, Don Cherry is everywhere. What’s he been up to this week?
Yes, this section is normally down near the end of this post. But it’s batting leadoff today because this week, Don Cherry CREATED AN INCIDENT, and we might as well talk about it now.
Welcome to a weekly blog post of thoughts and observations from the past few days and/or decades of NHL hockey.
The Three Stars of Comedy
Recognizing the three moments or personalities from around the league that produced the most comedic fodder for fans this week.
The third star: Eric Tangradi blocks all the shots
OK, the video of this Eric Tangradi shift doesn’t seem all that funny — until you imagine it being mashed up with the audio of Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes. Why doesn’t this exist yet, Internet? Do I have to think of everything for you?
Welcome to a weekly grab bag of thoughts and observations from the past few days and/or decades of NHL hockey.
This week’s three stars of comedy
Recognizing the three NHL personalities from around the league who produced the most comedic fodder for fans.
The third star: Jimmy Howard’s bad night — Howard had a rough game on Wednesday, especially when Steve Begin was involved. First came this goal, where Howard basically kicks the puck into his own net. But the highlight came 10 minutes later, when Howard misplayed a puck behind his net. A goalie mishandling the puck isn’t rare, but what seals it is Howard’s reaction: There isn’t one. He just stands there. No mad scramble back to the crease, no desperate attempt to push the net off. He just watches Begin score, then flips his arms up as if to say, “Screw this, I quit.”
Welcome to a weekly grab-bag of thoughts and observations from the past few days and/or decades of NHL hockey.
This Week's Three Stars of Comedy
Recognizing the three NHL personalities from around the league who produced the most comedic fodder for fans.
The third star: Steve Pinizzotto
If you've never heard of Steve Pinizzotto of the Vancouver Canucks, it's because he spends most of his time on the bench. Which is why you'd think he'd be able to successfully sit on one. No such luck.
The second star: Roberto Luongo and Miikka Kiprusoff
Oh, just two dudes shooting the breeze before last Saturday's game. Your typical post–trade deadline chitchat. I can't imagine what they may have been talking about. The only thing missing here was James Reimer wandering up behind them and earnestly asking "Whatcha talkin' 'bout?"
It feels like just a few weeks ago that we were watching the NHL’s opening night. And it was. Thanks, Bettman!
But in this lockout-shortened season, we’re already in the home stretch. In fact, today is one of just 18 days left on the NHL schedule. In a perfect world, you’d watch them all. But in this imperfect world, there’s a good chance you’re stuck with things like “a job” or “family” or “friends,” so you have to pick your spots.
I’m here for you. I went through each of the remaining 18 days on the NHL regular-season calendar to figure out which were likely to be worth watching, and which could safely be skipped.
Now that the trade deadline has passed, it’s time to look ahead to the final days of the NHL season. And that’s literally all there is left — we’re just 19 days away from the regular season wrapping up.
In the coming weeks, there will be time to praise the Cup contenders and heap scorn on the washouts. But today, let’s spend some time with the NHL’s middle class — those teams fighting tooth and nail for a playoff spot.
At the conclusion of Sunday night’s action, there were 10 teams within three points of eighth place in their conference. Here’s a look at those teams (and a few others), and how likely they are to still be standing when the first round begins.
By Sean McIndoe at
Len Redkoles/NHL via Getty Images
Welcome to a weekly grab bag of thoughts and observations from the past few days and/or decades of NHL hockey.
This week’s three stars of comedy
Recognizing the three NHL personalities from around the league who produced the most comedic fodder for fans.
The third star: The L.A. Kings trade deadline analyst
The deadline day tracker on the Kings' official website offered a complex breakdown of each deal, ranging from “No idea” (Paradis for Gotovets) to “WOOOAAAHHHHH!!!!” (Gaborik to the Blue Jackets). I like how the page is “Presented by Graham.” I don’t know who Graham is, but I hope someday he figures out how to turn off his caps lock key.
By Sean McIndoe at
Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images
Another NHL trade deadline has come and gone, and once again the day was relatively underwhelming. While there were some big names moved, there were only a total of 17 deals made all day, and the first didn’t come until 12:20 p.m.
Over the last decade, the trade deadline evolved into a league-wide mega-event. In Canada, multiple television networks spend the entire day covering it, and the hype can build to almost unbearable levels. For the past few years, the result has been a day full of time-killing, minor deals, and more time-killing.
What happened, trade deadline day? I miss you. I miss us.
Here are eight possible explanations for how we got here:
By Sean McIndoe at
Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
It's NHL trade deadline day, which means we can expect something like 15 or 20 trades to be announced by the end of the afternoon. Of course, not all transactions are created equal. As a quick primer, here’s a half-dozen types of trades to watch for today.
Oh snap, Tim Thomas, you just got owned! (Note to Tim Thomas: That’s just a figure of speech. Nobody actually owns you. You remain a free man, with all the rights and liberties that the Constitution guarantees you. Please don’t start throwing canned goods at me.)
If you’re an NHL general manager pulling the trigger on a trade, there are a few ways the move can blow up in your face. Maybe the star player you get back has nothing left. Maybe the deal messes up your team chemistry. Maybe somebody gets hurt. Maybe your owner panics and forces you to overpay.
Or every once in a while, maybe you get what has to be a GM’s worst nightmare: when an established player you’ve traded away suddenly takes his game to the next level.
We’re not talking about the long shot prospect who develops into a star down the road. We mean the guy you had on your roster and thought you knew pretty well, who almost immediately transforms into one of the league’s elite players. Suddenly, a deal that might look defensible or even downright smart at the time it's made ends up haunting a franchise for a generation.
Here are eight deals that saw teams give up on a player who turned out to be a year or less away from making the leap to superstardom:
By Sean McIndoe at
Debora Robinson/NHLI via Getty Images
Welcome to a weekly blog post of thoughts and observations from the past few days and/or decades of NHL hockey.
The Three Stars of Comedy
Recognizing the three moments or personalities from around the league that produced the most comedic fodder for fans this week.
The third star: Teemu Selanne is going to abduct your children
But don’t worry, he’ll still look adorable and nonthreatening while doing it. This is apparently what passes for a milk commercial in Finland, but it feels like so much more. I really hope somebody breaks it down frame by frame someday and oh there we go somebody already did.
We’re still two weeks away from the NHL’s April 3 trade deadline, but there’s a good chance action could pick up over the next few days. Recent history has shown a trend toward a quieter deadline day, with most of the bigger dealsgoing downin advance. And because of this season’s modified post-lockout schedule, this week’s annual GM meetings are taking place before the deadline instead of after.
So now seems like a good time to get an early jump on the speculation with a look at 10 of the players who are showing up in trade chatter. Not all of them will be traded (let’s face it, there’s a decent chance none of the top players will), and we all may have moved on to 10 different guys by next week, but right now, these are some of the bigger names driving the rumor mill.
