CrashingTheGoalie

by Ron Spence
I used to get this knot in my stomach: whenever Brent Sopel had the puck; and when Felix Potvin and Dan Cloutier were in goal.
I now have this same feeling when Roberto is between the pipes.
It’s not a conscious reaction – it’s the result of Roberto’s suspect play – so far this season [...]

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by Ron Spence
In their defense, the Canucks had a five day layoff and were facing one of the NHL’s best defenses.
But still, they looked really bad for most of the game.
I wanted to note a few points based on the past two contests.
Kevin Bieksa has been terrible.
Aaron Rome didn’t have the game that he wanted [...]

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by Ron Spence
Take soccer’s better behaved hooligans – not the burn them down and bag their ashes ones – and you’ll have baseball’s kranks from 125 years ago.
They got drunk during games, threw their containers at – and ran onto the fields and assaulted – rivals, plus the umps.
And, of course they always had a [...]

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by Ron Spence
Alexander Ovechkin is earning $9,000,000 this season.
This is in contrast to a number of NHLers who are earning the league’s minimum salary – $500,000.
All of the 715 players listed by nhlnumbers.com can afford a cell phone.

And yet, the NHLPA has difficulty electronically assembling their membership to vote – or discuss problems.
This is just [...]

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Many who watched the Stars vs. Canucks game last sunday were impressed by the play of 20-year-old Victoria rookie Jamie Benn.

“Benn, who grew up playing hockey and baseball on the Saanich Peninsula,” wrote Cleve Dheensaw, “was just a fifth-round draft selection taken 129th overall in 2007 out of the Victoria Grizzlies of the B.C. [...]

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by Ron Spence
Any player that I’ve ever met has been happy to win the Stanley Cup.
I understate, of course.

Pens’ captain Sidney Crosby won his first Cup at the age of 21 years. And while forgetting to shake hands, he knew how to celebrate the great honour.
courtesy of politicslam.com
Dallas Drake won his first Cup at 38-years-of-age, [...]

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by Ron Spence
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm,” Winston Churchill wrote.
Seven of the thirty coaches – who started the 2008-09 season – were ousted from their NHL teams – and are enthusiastically looking for another failure to start.
They were:

courtesy of sports.espn.go.com
Two others were dismissed at the end of the [...]

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by Ron Spence

“It was kind of a freak thing,” coach Jacques Martin said. “It wasn’t on a hit or anything.”
“He was just skating up the ice.”

The Ottawa coach was talking about his young Finnish Dman who had just injured himself during a 2001 exhibition game.
Eight years later, Sami Salo is still having freak injuries.
Vancouver was [...]

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by Ron Spence
If the eyes are the windows to the soul, then NHL Home Pages are the windows to the teams.
We can gain insights into many teams’ attitudes – and wallet thicknesses – by viewing their Home Pages.
The nucks’ Home Page uses the NHL’s generic format: game info, profiles, articles, and ads.
The look that’s aimed [...]

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by Bill Heintz

The urge to point fingers can be overwhelming. Especially when off season signings and pre-season hype were so overwhelmingly positive. The defense looks terrible. Edler is confused. Bieksa can’t skate. Who is this Ehrhoff character? Can Salo hit the net? Ever?
Remember the picture of Cloutier with a beach ball behind him? How about [...]

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