Hockey Fantastic

Rangers trade with the Islanders…

hockeyfantastic — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:10:36 +0000

So the Rangers are starting to gear up for re-building in the off-season, interestingly on of the front office’s first move is to trade with the Islanders for the first time since 1972. Niemi a blue-liner who played this season with the Saskatoon Blades in the WHL was clocked with a 97mph slap shot which could be useful. This guy could be a decent prospect and of course is going to start the discussion of what is going to happen to Redden and Rozsival (and their ever budging bank accounts) in the summer….

Bettman’s vision vs Canada?

hockeyfantastic — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:51:46 +0000

Yesterday in deepest Arizona the Glendale city council voted to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix. The taxpayers woke up to find that they might be on the hook for $25 million dollars should the sale of the Yotes go south. This means of course according to Bill Daly that the move to Winnipeg looks dead in the water.

Of course the question being what happens if Phoenix miss the playoffs next season? Is the casual fan base really going to get behind the team to make it profit-worthy?

or is it time to cut losses and move now?

It has long been acknowledged by many in the Media that Bettman’s strategy to move hockey into the American South has been a failure and now it is time to start moving teams north to more hockey based markets, eg.. Winnipeg, Quebec City, Southern Ontario…. maybe even Seattle, Portland?

Yet Writing an opinion which involves moving one hockey team to another city is an easy notion to write but in reality it is a difficult process and ultimately hurts someone. Because even moving the Coyotes or the Thrashers, Panthers, Predators and BlueJackets will leave dedicated hockey fans without a team and sometimes that is forgotten about.

But the fact still remains that hockey deserves to be given a chance once again in main hockey areas, anyone doubting the passion of Canadian hockey fans need to go re-watch the Olympics to see the love of the game. There was probably good reason at the time for Bettman and the NHL to try to expand the hockey market in new American cities, but the experiment has deemed to not work, so why not give a opportunity to the cities that lost their hockey teams in the early 90′s.

Time to give Canada more than just 6 teams, I believe most people would think that the country that lives and breathes the game deserves a greater share of the teams but of course whether this happens or not is ultimately not down to fan support but to money, which is a crying shame.

For the Jets…

Quick round 2 picks..

hockeyfantastic — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:34:20 +0000

Wings over Sharks in 6

Hawks over Canucks in 7

Pens over Canadiens in 5

Flyers over Bruins in 6

Norwegian Hobbit Alert

hockeyfantastic — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 16:34:38 +0000

So according to TSN the Rangers have made their first summer splash in the free-agent market signing Norwegian scoring winger Mats Zuccarello-Aasen

We shall have to wait and see what he can do in the NHL…

Playoff Time

hockeyfantastic — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:07:45 +0000

This is just an epic post by Penguins blogger Seth Rorabaugh on the Empty Netters site….

Puts you in the playoff frame of mind!!!!… some great moments intertwined between the Penguin moments…

Playoff picks

hockeyfantastic — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:24:10 +0000

Even though the Rangers are not about to play in the playoffs, there still is a great excitement for hockey fans on the first day of the playoffs… Some great hockey about to be played…

Before my own worthless predictions, The Oilers won last nights draft lottery to get the first overall pick, everything else went according to the numbers, so the Rangers get the 10th pick in June.

The Thrashers decided to follow Tampa’s lead and shake up the their front office too. How does Don Waddell keep a job?

Playoff Picks

Caps vs Canadiens- Much closer than people think, Halak gets hot but Caps in 6…

Devils vs Flyers – rough and tumble series, Devils in 7

Sabers vs Bruins – I think people are underestimating Buffalo, Sabers in 5 and make it look easy

Penguins vs Senators – Pens come together in playoffs to blow Sens away, Pens in 4

Sharks vs Avs – Can Colorado rebound from their late season fall? I’m guessing not, but will push San Jose, Sharks in 6

Hawks vs Preds – Chicago come out guns blasting, Blackhawks in 5

Canucks vs Kings – My call for the series of the first round, Canucks survive in 7 (barely)

Red Wings vs Coyotes - Phoenix has been a nice story but the Red Wings have been here before and will show the Yotes how to win a playoff series. Wings in 6

Rumors and playoffs

hockeyfantastic — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:05:50 +0000

So it’s the start of Draft Watch 2010 for the Rangers who hopefully have their tee-times booked, hopefully a few Rangers are packing their bags for a new team (I’m looking at you Jokinen) .. The rumours are circulating about the Fate of Glen Sather, from Darren Dreger’s twitter account

Lots of speculation in New York about Sather’s future. Only Slats knows what’s going to happen. One scenario includes Risebrough staying.

The Sather rumor we’ve head before so we shall see what happens, But in the meantime it’s become silly season for all other non playoff teams with Tampa Bay kicking off the fun by firing Head Coach Rick Tocchet, and General Manager Brian Lawton. Not exactly a shock there.

For the rest of the playoff teams the entire schedule is out for first round brought you by the excellent Puck The Media site

Wednesday the fun starts with

Wednesday, April 14
7:00 Game 1: Ottawa vs. Pittsburgh (VERSUS/CBC)
7:30 Game 1: Philadelphia vs. New Jersey (TSN)
10:00 Game 1: Detroit vs. Phoenix (VERSUS/TSN)
10:30 Game 1: Colorado vs. San Jose (VERSUS JIP/CBC)

Rangers postgame

hockeyfantastic — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 02:08:03 +0000

Rangers Players Postgame: SO Loss to Flyers (4/11).

Quote from Hank says it all

“I’m just so empty and disappointed right now”

Game 82 vs Flyers

hockeyfantastic — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 23:37:19 +0000

After 82 games, the highs and more lows of the season it all came down to the stick of Jokinen in a shootout…

A very tough loss, a horrible way to end the season. (is there a good way to end the season without the cup?)

Lundqvist was superb, almost God-like in this game, stopping 47 shots, Hank did everything in his power today to steal a playoff place for the Rangers, but again the main problem for the Rangers the lack of scoring was evident for all to see, there is a huge problem when in the two biggest games of the season Brandon Prust and Jody Shelly are the offensive threats

Throughout the game it felt as if the strategy was to sit back, to allow the Flyers to invade the Rangers zone time and time again and hold onto the one goal lead. What happened to “safe if death”. The Rangers looked better on the rare occasions they could get into the Flyers zone and cause pressure, but it was not often. The first goal showed that there needed to be a presence in front of the net, but the Rangers just were not able to set up plays in the attacking zone

I am going to assume (hope) that it will come out in the post-season that Gaborik has been playing with an injury because he really has been an invisible player in the stretch run, although can any fan complain too much, if not for his stellar play earlier in the season the Rangers would never have had the faintest of chances for a playoff spot

This team missed Callahan and Avery.

It’s a tough way to lose….

Matt Cooke meets Karma

hockeyfantastic — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 01:11:18 +0000

Tip to kuklaskorner for the link