2013-14 NHL Season

Sounds good!

 

Should be some great highlights tonight of Patrick Roy going crazy at the end of the Avalanche's 6-1 victory over the Ducks.
Getzlaf pummeled Downie. It got rough again during a faceoff with just a few seconds to go with about 3 pairs of scrums occurring.
Then Roy started jawing at Corey Perry on the bench and Roy went nuts. He started pushing the partition between the benched, almost knocking it over. Boudreau takes up the cause and they're yelling at each other when Roy takes another whack at the partition.

 

Typical Ducks, typical Perry.

 

I'm amazed Roy could hear what Boudreau was saying because he had his Stanley Cup rings plugging his ears.

 

I like the intensity Roy has brought the Avs and for one game, at least, those guys seemed to have bought into it.

Man, Mackinnon is fast.

I thought Fasth was OK. Couple of bad goals and he had some trouble controlling rebounds. The Ducks just looked flat across the board.

 

Interesting discussion I had yesterday that might spin off into a separate thread at some point.... with NHL players participating in the Sochi Olympics, who are the likely starting and backup goaltenders?

United States: Jonathan Quick, Ryan Miller, Jimmy Howard or Cori Schneider

Sweden: Henrik Lundqvist

Finland: Pekka Rinne, Kari Letonen, Tuukka Rask

Russia: Sergei Bobrovsky, Ilya Brzgalov or Evgeni Nabakov

Czech Republic: Tomas Vokoun

Slovakia: Jaroslav Halak, Petr Budaj

Canada is the real stumper for me. Defending gold medalist. Do they go with an aging Martin Brodeur? Go back to Roberto Luongo? Marc-Andre Fleury? Corey Crawford? Who might be some other contenders?

 

I don't know if he'll get it from the powers-that-be, but Craig Anderson should receive some consideration for the Americans.

I'm hearing Vokoun could be out anywhere from three to six months now due to the blood clot.

 

Wow, I hadn't heard that. I do think Marc-Andre Fleury is capable of bouncing back and being a serviceable goaltender, at least. In Pittsburgh, you don't have to get a shutout every night in order to have a chance to win.

Never thought I would see the day when the US might have more depth in goaltending than Canada did. I will be interested to see who Canada goes with.

 

U.S. Will likely be Quick and Schneider, unless Miller has a big bounce back. Though Craig Anderson very well could be there too.

Sweden: Lundqvist, Viktor Fasth, not sure who No. 3 would be, probably a Swedish Elite League goalie.

Finland: Rinne and Rask, though Niemi could get in the discussion.

Czech Republic: Hiller, Neuvirth, and I can see them taking a young guy like Patrik Bartosak -- fifth rd pick by the Kings this year -- along as a third stringer for experience.

Russia: Bobrovsky, Varlamov, maybe Bryzgalov.

Slovakia: Halak, Budaj, I guess, but they'll probably bring in a younger guy like a Jaroslav Janus who has played well for them internationally before and was once a Lightning prospect, or someone like that if they play well enough in the KHL or whatever Euro league they're in.

Canada: Luongo will be there unless he absolutely goes in the tank, beyond that it's a giant crap shoot. If Price has his shit together and playing well, he could even be the starter and maybe Crawford. But I don't think we'll see Ward or Fleury in Sochi. And Brodeur won't be there. He may not even be the starter in Jersey by the time the Olympics roll around. Not really happy about any of Canada's options, head cases all of them.

 

Jonas Hiller is Swiss. Started for Switzerland in Vancouver in 2010.

I know Ryan Miller has struggled a bit lately, but he was stellar in 2010 and I think that carries some weight with USA Hockey. Probably bring him along as a third goalie at least unless he is injured at that time.

 

I haven't a clue what Canada will do. As Beef said, head cases. I guess it will be who is hot.

 

Huge Yzerman fan but he didn't seem to have a problem with fighting when he had bad asses like Joey Kocur, Bob Probert, Darren McCarty and Brendan Shanahan watching his back:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/globe-on-hockey/steve-yzerman-calls-for-ban-on-fighting/article14662863/