A new thing to blame on Hossa.

or at least it seems.

After his one-night stand with the Pittsburgh Penguins two seasons ago, leaving to join the defending stanley cup champions (who beat the penguins in the cup final).... only to have a rematch with the penguins this season and lose... it seems likely that Marion Hossa's body actually produces some form of intensely concentrated Stanley Cup repellent.

So when the Chicago Blackhawks GM Dale Tallon decided to sign Hossa to a 12 (YES... COUNT IT... TWELVE) year deal. I kinda thought, gee, that must be a fantastic drug he's on. He's taking a page right out of the Book of Garth Snow.

There are plenty of recent long-term contracts. But I would argue some of those are legit. Who doesn't want to lock down their Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin.... I would argue Marion Hossa is not a player you want locked down. In fact, I would argue you want him to be one of those player that is easily expendible for a draft pick or a few character players at trade deadline.... having a 12 year deal dangling behind him.... not so enticing.

Anyway, the whole point of this rant is to point out that the Blackhawks fired their General Manager. Most of the stories appear to be calling this a "surprise move" since indeed Tallon was "at the helm when the team drafted players such as Kane and Toews". Yes, he was at the helm when the Chicago Blackhawks were so bad that they got third and first overall picks. Picks so high up are usually no-brainers. Kane was ranked first and Chicago took him first. Toews was ranked third and Chicago took him third.

Hossa is a Stanley Cup repellent.... and Tallon signed him to a twelve year deal on a team that has promise to go far in the next few years.

Not so surprising any more?

An open letter...

Dear Chicago Blackhawks,

Signing Stanley Cup repellent Marian Hossa to a 12-year contract... proabably a bad life choice.

Just sayin,

Cheers,

Jenn

Eastern Conference Champions

Sit. Down. Flyers.
If anyone had any doubts about whether the Pittsburgh Penguins would win this series, they were silenced today.

Whilst Canada was getting their ass handed to them by the Russians at least something was right in the hockey world. Before I could even switch the television over to CBC after almost throwing something at it, the game was 2-0. Ryan Malone (a player rumoured to be hitting the Free Agent highway this summer) scored first and opened the floodgates that was Martin Biron's net. The opposite could be said for Marc-Andre Fleury, who made a few timely saves early in the game, and one huge one late to preserve his shut-out.

The entire team was running on what seemed to be all cylinders, getting points from ten different players. Marian Hossa (4), Ryan Malone (3), Sidney Crosby (2), Maxime Talbot (2), Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar, Jordan Staal, Adam Hall, Pascal Dupuis, Brooks Orpik.

And it was almost like Sidney Crosby said a big 'NO, YOU SUCK' to the fans that rode him all of game four. Sit down. Flyers. and double sit down, flyers fans.

The Penguins now await the winner of the Dallas and Detroit final in the west. And by the way the last game went, it appears the momentum is in Dallas's hands. Game six of that series goes Monday night in Dallas.




The Memorial Cup game is currently in progress. Apparently instead of showing the Kitchener-Spokane game, the main Sportsnet network decided to go with random programming while the Bluejays game was in rain delay (see earlier post on Baseball). So you can only get the Memorial Cup game if you've got digital cable, where you can pick up one of the regional channels. Dear Sportsnet, You suck.

Brent Burns is a monster

quick updates from work.



Brent Burns has scored twice against Russia in the Gold Medal game to put Canada in the lead 3-1 at the end of the third period. TSN.ca was so excited that they mis-spelled Burn's name:

"Defenceman Brunt Burns scored his second goal of the game and third of the tournament on a 5-on-3 powerplay to give Canada a 3-1 lead in the first period. Russia immediately called a timeout following the goal."

Chris Kunitz has the other goal for Canada. Alexander Semin has the lone goal for Russia.

*update* Period 2, Russia scored on the powerplay, i have no idea who scored, although i'm sure ovechkin has something to do with it.

*update* Dany Heatley scored to make it 4-2 Canada!! The camera cut to Prime Minister Stephen Harper who was in attendance with his son. Apparently the PM is an avid hockey fan who is actually currently writing a book about hockey.

*update* Russia has brought it to within one with a goal by Tereshchenko(Stephen Harper looks worried) halfway through the third period.

*update* TIE GAME. 5 minutes to go. (Stephen Harper was right to be worried.)

*update* regulation ended with a 4-4 tie. Overtime in IIHF rules are a 20 minute overtime period of 4 on 4. And then if nothing is decided, a shootout. Seriously??? A shootout. ridiculous.

Also, it's now 1-0 Pittsburgh over the Flyers after an early Ryan Malone goal (assisted by Sidney Crosby and Marion Hossa)


*update* It's over. Canada loses. Kovalchuk scored both the tying and winning goal. Gold to Russia and Silver to Canada.
Russia scored on a powerplay... one of the most brutal penalties of life. I hate the delay of game for shooting it over the glass. I will rant about this later.

Hossa out... again

Hossa is listed as Day-to-Day with an "upper body injury" according to Yahoo! although the Penguins website has no word on the injury. As mentioned before Hossa took a blindsided hit to the head in last nights game.

The Montreal Canadiens are in action tonight against the Buffalo Sabres, the Canadiens trail the Penguins by one point in the standings but they have this game tonight in hand over Pittsburgh. The Sabres who are pretty much out of the playoff picture (they have 83 points, trail Washington by three and Philadelphia by five and only have five games remaining) will be playing mostly for pride. Updates later.

In the meantime, check out this story

Jinxed?

The trade deadline was over a month ago and yet Marian Hossa and Sidney Crosby have only played together for about... 44 minutes.

Stay with me here: Hossa, traded to the Penguins at the February trade deadline from the Atlanta Thrashers played only a few shifts before being taken out with an injury for a few weeks. While he was out Crosby returned from his high ankle injury... but then re-injured it. So at this point Hossa returned from his injury. Today, Crosby returned... again. Hossa and Crosby played on a line together for the first two periods, but a few minutes in the third period Hossa took a hit to the head from behind from Sean Bergenheim and left the game looking quite confused.

Hossa did not return, no word yet on if he's concussed... it sure looked like it.

Ever felt like you shot yourself in the foot...

Penguins GM Ray Shero probably does. When i saw Hossa leave the ice I had two thoughts... The first, was a flashbacks to his days in Ottawa where he was "fragile" at best, constantly missing games for various injuries. I also thought, geez, the gamble was supposed to be 'will the pens lose Hossa to UFA in July'.

If you're behind on the news Hossa sprained his MCL (knee) in the game against the Bruins last night. (His first game as a Penguin.) Reports of how long the Hossa will be out ranges from a few games to the ominous sounding "weeks", but that report came from The Score sports channel, so i wouldn't put too much into that.
The penguins are finally coming near the end of a few long-spanned injuries that have plagued the team. Marc-André Fleury returned to NHL ice for the first time last night, it didn't necessarily go as well as planned, but he's back. Also Gary Roberts (broken leg) and Sidney Crosby (sprained high ankle) are reportedly very close to returning.


In other much more lighter news, a saskatchewan sawmill worker is now a millionaire, after he managed to get 15 goals, from the far blueline, in 24 seconds!! and he had a few seconds to spare. I remember a few months back when they opened up the random draw to have the chance to do this... Is that even possible? A big Don Cherry thumbs up to Darwin Head.


Carey Price, the newly crowned no. 1 goaltender in Montreal has strengthened my position that he indeed is not human. That kid is as cool as a cucumber. Ridiculously long shootout? No problem. AHL playoff run? whatever. Expected to now carry the team into the playoffs with the lofty hopes of Montreal fans riding on his shoulders?
"It just means I'm going to be playing more," Price said. "You can't overburden yourself with the pressure. I thought it was going to happen eventually and it just happened sooner than I expected."
Somebody remind this kid that he's only 20-years-old! Price is expected to be in action against the Sabres tonight, 7:30 EST.


The Senators fired coach John Paddock. Now i'm just going out on a limb here, but last time I checked Brian Murray didn't fix the goaltending situation in Ottawa at the trade deadline. And now Murray, who has taken over the coaching position (again) besides his General Manager duties can now expect to inherit the goaltending problems. Actually now that i think about it, i wasn't really going out on a limb. The Sens still have a playoff performer in Emery, who is not a team player. And a team player in Gerber, who seems to panic in the playoffs.

I spilled coffee all over my keyboard...

That is literally what happened when i saw the Huet trade pop up on the TSN realtime trade tracker. Yesterday was spent in an aura of disbelief. I had wanted my first ever post to my brand new blog to be reaction to TRADE DEADLINE 2008, but i couldn't bring myself to do it. I needed to sleep on it, mostly to make sure that this was really happening. Now i could be wrong. Perhaps Carey Price will rise to the occasion like a young Ken Dryden, or Patrick Roy... or maybe not. Considering Huet is for the most part the goaltender that has gotten the Canadiens into a position where they are challenging for first place in the Eastern Conference, trading him away for a simple second round pick just doesn't add up. The one redeeming thing is that the habs managed a 5-1 drubbing over the Hossa-less Atlanta Thrashers last night... mildly brightening my mood. Let's just hope that the Price we get for the playoffs is the Price that we saw for the World Juniors in 2007.

Speaking of Hossa! Can you believe how much the Penguins gave away for him? un-bel-iev-able. I'm certain it could most certainly pay off huge... My only concern is the departure of Colby Armstrong. Armstrong is a character player who had a lot of chemistry... not only on the team, but most importantly... SIDNEY CROSBY! I hope this works out for the best for them... and let's hope Hossa doesn't go packing to Free Agency at the end of the season.

And for the first time since the beginning of time a Toronto Maple Leafs game looks interesting. They are in Fort Lauderdale tonight to play the Panthers, where they will suit up against a couple former teammates, Chad Kilger and Wade Belak... fingers crossed that Belak drops the gloves.