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Better not tread on the New England patriot

January 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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There's something hollow about Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas' rationale for not joining his teammates in an official visit to the White House this week to commemorate their Stanley Cup championship. Thomas dissed the photo op with President Obama because, he said, he was exercising his "right as a Free Citizen." A staunch Tea Party libertarian who has the words "Don't Tread on Me" on his game mask, the all-star railed against all government in a statement he posted Monday night on his Facebook page. "I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People," he wrote. "This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government. "Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free … [Read more...]

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Off-ice player deaths wake-up call for NHL

September 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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It's been an unsettling off-season in the NHL with the untimely deaths of three players, each of whom is bound by the thread of being what is referred to in the game as an "enforcer." At first glance, one might suspect that all those blows to the head suffered in hockey fights might have played a role in the deaths. While there's no evidence to support this, what we do know is two of the players—Rick Rypien and Wade Belak—were suffering from depression while the third, Derek Boogard, died from an accidental overdose of prescription painkillers and alcohol. There is no other team sport where fighting is as accepted as in professional hockey. It's woven into the fabric of the game like slapshots and power plays. It's an attraction, for better or worse. Georges Laraque knows what it's like to play the role of the hockey heavy. He was an enforcer for four NHL teams in a career … [Read more...]

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Miracle shot life lesson for Minnesota twins

August 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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We tell our kids honesty is the best policy. We think that when the times come to demonstrate this most basic of principles we'll be up to the task. It may have taken them a wee bit of time, but the Smith family of Owatonna, Minn., was. The story of the Smith's 11-year-old twin boys, Nate and Nick, has received much national attention. Nate made a million-to-one hockey shot last Thursday between periods of the annual Shattuck vs. the World celebrity fundraiser for the Faribult (Minn.) Youth Hockey Association. The shot was worth $50,000. The only problem: Nate was supposed to be Nick. One of the oldest hockey promotions known to man is to have a fan brought to the ice between periods to shoot a puck from a ridiculously long distance into an even more ridiculously small cutout in front of the goal. In Nate's case, the shot had to travel 89 feet into a slot three-and-a-half inches … [Read more...]

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Coliseum no vote could signal end of Islanders

August 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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It's never pretty when a professional sports franchise in an established league relocates to another city. You've got to feel for hockey fans in Atlanta who just watched their Thrashers fly the coop to Winnipeg. Or those in Seattle who supported the NBA's SuperSonics for 41 years before they left for Oklahoma City. With four years remaining on their lease, the New York Islanders are a good bet to leave Long Island in 2015 after Nassau County voters on Monday decisively voted down a $400 million proposal to overhaul the aged Nassau Coliseum. Islanders' owner Charles Wang has been seeking a new arena or refurbishment of the Coliseum for more than a decade. Wang says the team will honor its lease, but the defeat could signal the end of the 39-year run for pro hockey on Long Island. According to The New York Times, with 82 percent of the ballots counted late Monday, the vote was … [Read more...]

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Frenzy makes for frenetic Friday in NHL

July 2, 2011 By 2 Comments
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By the end of Friday's Free Agent Frenzy in the NHL, more than 80 players had changed teams and all had cashed in in a big way — with some receiving contracts that raised a few eyebrows. The biggest fish yet to be reeled in is forward Brad Richards, who was being courted hard into the night and as of this writing, had yet to decide where he was going to land. According to TSN's hockey insider Bob McKenzie, four teams remained in the running for the former Dallas Star: the New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, Toronto Maple Leafs and Calgary Flames. Richards has ties to Rangers coach John Tortorella and Flames general manager Jay Feaster from his days with the Tampa Bay Lightning. A decision was expected on Saturday. Any recap of Friday's activities has to begin with the Philadelphia Flyers and their signings of forwards Jaromir Jagr and Maxime Talbot from the rival Pittsburgh … [Read more...]

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Flyers send message by blowing up roster

June 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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At first glance, the two bombshell trades pulled off by the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday — which the Philadelphia Inquirer's Sam Carchidi called "one of the most stunning days in the franchise's history" — would appear to be financially motivated, especially in the wake of the team's signing of goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to a reported $51 million contract that stretches out over nine years. Not necessarily so, writes Sportsnet.ca columnist Mike Brophy. The deals that sent team captain Mike Richards to the Los Angeles Kings and fellow center Jeff Carter to the Columbus Blue Jackets will indeed save the team more than $100 million in salary, but they will also cost a combined 314 goals and 692 points. With those statistics in mind, Brophy — also an anaylst on Canada's Rogers Sportsnet cable network — believes the Flyers are sending a message that they want to shake up … [Read more...]

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Old school for Marlins; more new blood to NHL

June 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Call it the sports world’s version of “The Young and the Restless.” In a week when a couple of NHL teams continued a trend by filling head coaching vacancies with new, young blood, baseball’s Florida Marlins turned back the clock for an old but familiar face. If Edwin Rodriguez’s Sunday-morning announcement that he was stepping down as manager of the Marlins was a surprise, then the word that Jack McKeon was expected to replace him on an interim basis was something of a stunner. It was eight years ago that McKeon, then 72, took the reins of a Marlins team that had lost 22 of its first 38 games under Jeff Torborg and led them to an improbable World Series win over the favored New York Yankees. Now, the 80-year-old McKeon gets to try it again, this time second only to Connie Mack as the oldest manager ever. The Marlins have dropped 10 straight and 18 of their 19 games … [Read more...]

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Thomas, Bruins take Cup; Canuck fans can’t cope

June 16, 2011 By 2 Comments
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Awarded the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's best goaltender in 2009, Tim Thomas would undergo hip surgery a year later and then be supplanted as the Boston Bruins' No. 1 netminder. He would not see any action during the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs. When the Bruins broke camp in September, Thomas still wasn't atop the depth chart. But as soon as he got his starts he performed magnificently. He had made it all the way back and Tuukka Rask, Boston's other goalie, hade made it to the bench. In Wednesday's deciding Game 7, Thomas pitched his second shutout of this year's series and the Bruins became Stanley Cup champions for the first time since 1972 and the first team since 1966 to overcome a 2-0 finals deficit. Following the 4-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks — the first by a road team in the seven games — the 37-year-old goalie was named winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as the finals … [Read more...]

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Luongo needs A-game to avoid home heartbreak

June 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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It's gut-check time for the Vancouver Canucks, most especially Roberto Luongo. The goalie's performance in Monday's 5-2 road loss to the Boston Bruins in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals was about as bad as could be scripted for a game in which the Canucks had the chance to bring home the Stanley Cup with a victory. Luongo was pulled for the second time in the series after giving up three soft goals in the first period, the first two a mere 35 seconds apart. Considering the team that's scored first in each game of the series has gone on to win, Luongo put his team in an untenable situation before they could muster any momentum. All this transpired after Luongo took an ill-advised shot at his Boston counterpart Tim Thomas, who just happens to be hands-down the best player in the series. Commenting on a goal Thomas let up to Vancouver's Maxim Lapierre in Game 5, Luongo said, "It's … [Read more...]

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Bruins-Canucks: It’s still anybody’s Cup

June 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Forget all the trash talk and posturing coming from the NBA finals. If you're looking for some real bad blood, it's bubbling over in the Stanley Cup series between the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks. One player — the Canucks' Aaron Rome — has already been dismissed from the series after laying out Boston forward Nathan Horton, who was removed from the ice on a stretcher early in Game 3 with a concussion and is also out for the remainder of the playoff. Meanwhile, in Wednesday's pivotal Game 4, won by the Bruins 4-0 to even the series at 2-2, things got so chippy towards the end that, as Versus commentator Pierre McGuire noted, Boston's Adam McQuaid looked like he wanted to kill Keith Ballard of the Canucks if given the opportunity. This is not to say the combatants in this year's Stanley Cup finals in any way resemble the Philadelphia Flyers of the 1970s, the "Broad … [Read more...]

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