Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.
• Leahy and Wysh at the NHL FanFest. Thanks, Ottawa.
• Who has the easiest schedule the rest of the way? From Elias: The NHL teams with the toughest remaining schedule (based on the combined points percentage of its remaining opponents) are Nashville (.596), Chicago (.586), New Jersey (.583), Columbus (.576) and Buffalo (.575). The NHL teams with the easiest remaining schedule are Florida (.532), St. Louis (.541), Colorado (.542), San Jose (.543) and Vancouver (.543)." [ESPN]
• Razor Reaugh says it's time for the NHL to go 4-on-4 all the time, and it's an idea endorse by no less than Mike Ribeiro himself! "Concussions would be reduced. I repeat, concussions would be reduced." [Razor With An Edge]
• Will the NHL's concussions problem morph into the NHL's insurance problem? [Toronto Star]
• Ken Campbell's top storylines for the rest of the season: "Bettman's statements make it clear he's going to wait until the last possible moment to pull the plug on Phoenix. The question now is where will they end up? Quebec City, Seattle or Toronto?" [THN]
• Interesting back and forth between agent Ritch Winter and Daniel Wagner of Pass It To Bulis, as Winter took the blog to task for a report in Cody Hodgson in a rambling rant about the media's biases and inaccuracy. (Ayn Rand? Really?) Wagner responded to the response here on PITB. I have some additional thoughts here.
• Bad news for both Montreal Canadiens and NHL Trade Deadline fans: "Travis Moen also has to undergo another test that could confirm more bad news, that the gritty forward will be out for a longer term than expected as well." [CJAB]
• Crank up the bandwagon: The Tampa Bay Lightning will get defenseman Victor Hedman (concussion), and forwards Ryan Shannon (knee), J.T. Wyman (pinkie) and Tom Pyatt (leg) back tonight. [Lightning Strikes]
• The Detroit Red Wings are goin' shopping. [Globe & Mail]
• What, no Jagr? Oh wait no there he is. [Broad Street Hockey]
• Nice gesture here from the Calgary Flames to honor the late Brad McCrimmon tonight: "During warm-ups, Flames players will don jerseys sporting McCrimmon's number four and name on the back. Their respective numbers will be displayed on the arms of the jersey. The jerseys will be autographed and auctioned off on CalgaryFlames.com after the game with the proceeds going to Love For Lokomotiv." [Flames]
• A posthumous stick-tap to the fan who wanted his ashes spread behind the Edmonton Oilers bench. [Cult of Hockey]
• BREAKING: There's inherent bias in the recording of statistics by the home team. [Backhand Shelf]
• Brenden Morrow is back tonight for the Dallas Stars. [NHL]
• Andy Greene is back for the Devils; Adam Henrique is not. [Devils]
• The San Jose Sharks have a better record now than at last year's All-Star Break. "The D-Core is deeper. Partly due to the addition and comfort level of Brent Burns. Partly due to the chemistry of current pairings. And partly due to having more qualified defensemen than can even dress on a given night. Even with the expected bumps and bruises in an NHL season, the Sharks have yet to need/utilize the services of a blueliner called up from the AHL, which was not the case last year." [CSN Bay Area]
• A stats-based look at the Chicago Blackhawks: "This season, the one-goal games have evened out, and Chicago is 7th in the league and 4th, again, in Fenwick Tied. The other thing we can see is that, as a team with even strength, their opponents have stopped 90.9% of shots, giving them a 9.1% shooting percentage, and they've stopped 91.1%, which means their PDO (adding those numbers together) is 100.2%, so they're right around the league average." [Nucks Misconduct]
• The NCHC strikes a TV deal with CBS Sports Network. "Is that even a real station, or is CBS Sports Network one of those myths like Union being a good hockey team or women's hockey that everybody just believes because they have no evidence to the contrary?" [WCHB]
• Check it, from Bryan Reynolds: "I work with Defending the Blue Line, a group that helps military kids play hockey. We are in a heated battle for a White House recognition, and we need votes from the hockey world to stay in front. The link to vote is long, so we made a fancy shortened link: http://bit.ly.DTBLVote."
• "You guys, I'm starting to get worried about all of the starts that Craig Anderson is getting." [Welcome To Your Karlsson Years]
• Looking at the fantasy production, or lack thereof, for Drew Stafford this season: "Now there are certainly other factors involved in Stafford's low production as well. The Sabres as a whole have performed well below expectations so far and that can typically affect a player's production. Derek Roy missed substantial time last season and that no doubt contributed to Stafford receiving increased minutes and opportunities in key situations." [Dobber]
• What we learned from the Tim Gleason contract. [Canes Country]
• Travis Hughes follows up on our Shanny story, looking at the Philadelphia Flyers limiting Zac Rinaldo's hits. [Broad Street Hockey]
• It's amazing to me that decades after "Slap Shot" they still have players doing fashion shows. [Austin Post-Bulletin]
• A lovely backyard ice rink created in the noted hockey hotbed of Flagstaff. [AZ Daily Sun]
• Finally, please enjoy young hockey players being enslaved by wily cowpokes, forcing them skate around their "chuckwagons" between periods at World Juniors. Yeehaw!
No comments:
Post a Comment