You know it, you play it, you watch it, you love it.  It's hockey, it's 
everywhere.  If it's hockey, it belongs here.  If it's not hockey but 
it affects hockey and it can be brought into a hockey discussion, it 
belongs here.  

104 responses total.

pavel bure has scored 56 goals this season (so far).  Anyone care to guess
where he may end up?  

He's reminding us of how far scoring has fallen.  Early in the 90s, 50 goals
*might* be enough to get you in the top ten if you got enough assists.  With
Lemieux's torrid run of form, offense might just be on its way back in.  

The Final Four is set.  UM, MSU, North Dakota, and Boston College.  
UM-BC and MSU-NoDak in the semi finals on Thursday, April 5, with the 
winners meeting on the 7th, in primetime.  It should be a great final 
four, and I (as of right now) get to go! :) :) :) :)

You suck.  

Good hockey games this weekend.  The highlight was probably in a sports bar
in the Amway Grand after Saturday's games.  College hockey dominated the
place.  The Maine-BC quarterfinal was on most of the televisions, fans from
a number of teams participating in in the west regional were everywhere (and
at least unified in something; after a neutral playing darts broke a glass,
everybody in earshot dropped what they were doing and began yelling "Sieve!
Sieve!  Sieve!" in unison) and personalities were everywhere.  Prominent
visitors included MSU coach Ron Mason, former Minnesota coach Doug Woog, and
most of the local media members.

Beating St. Cloud was a pleasant surprise, too.

The Wings beat the Blues last night, making the Central Division title a
virtual lock.  Further good news arrived later that night when Edmonton beat
Colorado, giving Edmonton a two point-and-tiebreak advantage for the fifth
seed over Vancouver.  Keep them away from us.

heh.  I*really* enjoyed the oilers-avs game.  Very high energy, and it always
does my heart good to see Forsberg get manhandled.  Go Oilers!
Does it seem to anyone else that the Wings are getting a little lazy? After
watching the two games back to back I was disturbed by the comparatively
low-energy game against St. Louis.  Seems like it should have been much
more intense, given the stakes.  Maybe it's just the average age that 
everyone keeps whining about.

My canes got WAXED by the Caps last night, 7-0

...allowing my adopted bruins a legitimate chance at a playoff spot...

Tie Domi (anagrams to Idiot Me) got in a fight with a fan tonight.

Domi was apparently in the penalty box, when this fan spilled pop or 
beer on him.  Domi squirted him with a water bottle.  The fan was 
leaning over the glass and the glass broke, leaving the fan in the box 
with Domi.  Linesman Kevin Collins rushed into the box to break it up.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/2001/20010329/recap/torphi.html# has a video 
clip, and a brief decription of the incident.

i dont like hockey all that much but i think it was kewl how lemuix came back
and all

Anne... we gotta talk.. <Grins>

heh.  I saw in on TV last night...most amusing. :)
Domi claims that the fans were throwing things at him more than once before
he started squirting water.  And "the glass broke" means only that the 
panel of plexiglass got knocked over, not that there were shards of glass
all over the penalty box.  I think I'd believe Domi on his claim--you 
could tell from the background noise that the crowd was *really* unhappy
with the Leafs.

Of course, it's Philly.  Both parties are sort of at fault, really.  The
league has said that it is going to begin punishing activities like squirting
the crowd, which establishes a nice precendent.

I want the Wings to hold a little bit back.  No reason to exhaust themselves
or get hurt now.  Save it for the playoffs.

well, you got your wish...I wasn't expecting them to lose to Philly, of all
teams.  Hopefully tonight's game against the Caps will be both exciting and
victorious.  I'm impressed with Lidstrom's dedication to the team--I saw his
face after the stitches, and it wasn't pretty.  Did anyone see the details
of him getting slashed in the face?  Was it a stick or a skate?

North Dakota beat MSU-- which one would assume greatly improve UM's
chances to go all the way

The UM-Boston College game was good, close game....Boston College vs.
North Dakota should be an excellent final.  

Caps beat the Panthers last night 3-0!!  Please God, tell me we are going to
be in ghood shape for the playoffs . . .

Finally, Detroit is scoring again!  As well as kissing each other. (I'm
just mad I missed it :))  Here's hoping that tomorrow's game against
Colorado is a good one.

That's going to be a great game to watch.  I predict CO will spank Detroit.

Hah.  I refuse to believe it till I see it.  And there's always the hope
that Holmstrom (or whoever, really, I'm not picky) will smash Forsberg's
ugly face for him.  Mostly I'm worried because I heard rumors that Scotty
was going to scratch Lidstrom for one of the last two games, and he played
against Atlanta.  I *don't* want to watch a game against Colorado without
Lidstrom or Chelios.

In other sports news, the Rock'em Sock'em Robots continued their unbeaten
streak last night, defeating Playdoh in a hard-fought game 3-0, despite a lack
of scoring by either Greg Fleming or Mike "Woody" Woodroofe.  (I can't believe
they call him Woody.  I can't do it.  I think I could manage Mike if I had
to, but Woody is right out.  :|  )  

I can't either.  Although I have to admit that the idea of calling my dad
Woody is slightly less ridiculous than the idea of calling my *mother* Woody
(which is the login or nickname that she picks given ANY opportunity).  It's
just wrong.
Congratulations on the win!

I *love* Peter Forsberg . . . .Go Avs!!!

Hah.  He was scared to show his face in Joe Louis...and now we're 19 and
counting on our at-home unbeaten streak.  Yeah Wings!

I don't care about the unbeaten streak, unless it manages to extend to 
34 or 35 games this season.  That would be pleasing.  It's postseason 
hockey time, one of the best periods in all of sports.  This is one of 
the strongest playoff fields that I can remember, including only two 
teams that aren't playing very well (Vancouver and Toronto, both of 
whom backed in).  Heaven knows who'll survive.

As is typical, the Frozen Four final was exciting.  I would be curious 
to hear how much college hockey richard actually follows...

heh.  that would be pleasing indeed...at any rate, the excellent home 
record is comforting, given that the Kings are playing really well.  It
would suck to not make it past the first round.
The NCAA final was cool indeed.  It's been a while since I saw pulling the
goalie work as a strategy, very pretty.  Also, the women's world championship
will be on tonight and a friend is taping it:  USA vs. Canada.  I would like
to note that in the semifinals USA-Russia game, the only goal scored against
Team USA was scored by the MIT women's varsity coach.

The NCAA championship was excellent.  The atmosphere inside the Pepsi 
Arena was just huge when UND scored with 38 seconds left in regulation 
to send it into OT.  Everyone was standing up, and cheering.

I saw a replay of the GWG, and it looked like Goehring (the UND goalie) 
tried to poke-check the puck, and missed, leading directly to the goal.

How can you fight that kind of determination? :)  Kolanos was possessed.

Great game today between Buffalo and Philly.  That was a lot of fun to watch.

The playoffs are upon us!  This is an exceptionally strong field.  I can't
remember a stronger one.  The top 12 seeds all have legitimate short or long
shots to win it.  

Yay!  Time to figure out *exactly* how many people can be crammed into my
tiny living room to watch the playoff games...the day after I hve to present
group meeting and two days before subgroup, no less!  Bring out the dead...
I mean, the kings!

My only comment on the Avs losing to the Wings is that Roy, Forsberg and
Bourque weren't played, to rest them for the playoffs.  I think we can all
admit that they contribute a great deal to the Avs game.

Neither were Larianov or Yzerman, but I haven't seen any Wings fans take 
this as an indicator toward the postseason.  Neither side believed that 
it meant anything in that regard.  

Despite sucking terribly last night, the Rock'em Sock'em robots are still
undefeated, beating the Matchbox Cars 3-2.  It helped a lot that they only
had six people and a goalie show up, and were skating pretty slow by the 3rd
period.  It was a really crappy game, though.  

I would like to note that I personally kicked ass in the scrimmage last night
--even defended pretty well against our star Minnesota-raised player.
And no one thought that the last Wings-Avs game was all that important, which
is why so many top players got rested in the first place.

The Caps play the Pens tonight in the first game of the play-offs.  C-A-P-S,
Caps, Caps, Caps!!!!!

oh dear, I'm afraid this is going to wind up being a pretty controversial
item...
I got to watch only the first period of the Wings game last night, which 
turned out to be the ideal situation.  Yay Shanny!  Welcome back Federov!

The Wings jetted out to a 3-0 lead after one period, "lost" the 2nd period
3-2, then shut things down to grind out a 5-3 victory over the LA Kings last
night at Joe Louis Arena.  Brendan Shanahan had 2 goals and 3 points, Sergei
Federov had a goal and 3 points, and Nick Lidstrom had 2 assists.  Steve
Yzerman left after the 1st period with what today is described as a low ankle
sprain, which he apparently suffered in practice Tuesday, and is listed as
day to day.  Much more serious is the broken foot Shanahan suffered while
blocking a shot in the 3rd period.  He is out indefinitely.  There was some
speculation he might be footed with a special boot that would allow him to
play with pain.  He vows that he will return during the playoffs.

Game 2 is at the Joe at 1pm on Saturday.  The Wings need a quick series and
time off to heal.

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