Gary "Chuck Norris" Roberts Hangs Up The Skates

According to TSN.ca, Gary Roberts has retired from the NHL for the second time.

He was placed on waivers by Tampa Bay last week prior to the trade deadline and no one claimed him.

I for one, am sad to see him go. I loved him when he was in Pittsburgh. He played with such a reckless abandon, despite his many injuries in his career. His playing style earned him the nickname of Chuck Norris around Pittsburgh and there was actually merchandise with "WWGRD?" (What Would Gary Roberts Do?" printed. Good times.

Nothing phased him at all. Opposing defensemen always looked over their shoulders when they went into the corners to fetch a puck that had been dumped in. You always knew Roberts was going to be flying in behind that poor d-man to put him through the boards and win that puck.

Roberts never took a shift off. He gave 110% every shift and his teammates fed of that. He made the team better with his gritty, take no prisoners style and he will be sorely missed.



For his career, Roberts played 1,224 games, registered 438 goals, 471 assists and 2,560 penalty minutes.

Is he a Hall of Famer? I'd tend to say yes with over 900 points in his career. Not too shabby if you ask me. He also has his name on the Stanley Cup from the 1989 champion Flames.

It's too bad a contending team didn't take a flier on Roberts for the playoffs. Part of me was hoping the Pens would claim him, but it wasn't in the cards.

Congratulations on a great career Gary. Thanks for the memories.

I'm especially a fan of this fight. (Sorry Derek.)



UPDATE:

I was poking around on YouTube some more and came across this gem as well. Enjoy!

Bruins Acquire Recchi, Montador

The Boston Bruins have acquired Mark Recchi from the Tampa Bay Lightning reports ESPN. The Lightning have also given Boston their 2010 2nd round draft pick. In exchange, the Lightning acquired rearguard Matt Lashoff and forward Martins Karsums.

Well, I suppose it's a solid deal for Boston. Recchi's an unrestricted free against on July 1st, so the 41-year-old will likely be a brief rental for the B's. Still though, he adds loads of experience and leadership, not to mention a left-handed shot that the Bruins have desperately needed on offense.

It'll be interesting to see who he plays with tomorrow night against Phoenix.

The Bruins have also traded for an Anaheim Ducks defenseman, though probably not the one most people would have pegged them as getting. The B's sent forward Petteri Nokelainen and his injured eye to the Ducks for gritty Steve Montador.

Montador is a tough, physical player and looking over the B's backline, I'm not quite sure where Montador is going to fit in. Does Hunwick get sent back to Providence? When I first heard the news of this signing, along with the Recchi signing, I thought maybe the B's were using the two players as pieces to further their agenda for someone else. However, it appears as though I was wrong.

These are certainly curious acquisitions for Boston and it'll be interesting to see how they fare tomorrow evening. I'm mostly curious to see how Montador is going to fit into the team, but Julien must have a plan if he wanted the player.

Pens Win 3-1 For 4th Straight Win

The Pens are now on a four game wining streak thanks to a solid 3-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight. That's three straight wins on the road too!I'm going to keep this very short tonight, because of the trade deadline looming large.

The win puts the Pens in a tie for 7th in the East with the New York Rangers with 72 points. They lead the Hurricanes by one point and Buffalo by three.

The Pens looked good tonight and Marc-Andre Fleury stood on his head at times to keep them in the game. Even newly waived Miroslav Satan played a good game and had some great chances to make Ray Shero change his mind. The biggest problem with Satan is that he's obviously forgotten how to put the puck in the net, much like pop music has forgotten what a bridge is. Change things up and you get results! Trying the same shot over and over again makes you predictable and playing the same beat for 5 minutes gets real old real quick. I'm looking at you Coldplay.

Video Highlights Courtesy Of NHL.com


Can I just say how much I'm already loving Chris Kunitz?! Not just for his scoring two goals tonight, but for how he's scoring goals. He's crashing the net and banging home rebounds. Who have the Pens had to score those types of goals this season? No one really jumps to mind so this trade is already looking good for the Pens.

There was only one goal against tonight so let's take a quick look.

Goal #1 - Vinny Prospal One-Timer Tap-In

Ryan Malone nicely picks off a cross-ice pass from Evgeni Malkin to Sergei Gonchar who had jumped up to join the rush. Malone throws it up ice to Vincent Lecavalier who moves in on a 2-on-1 with Vinny Prospal with Brooks Orpik being the lone man back.

Orpik waves his stick around to try and force Lecavalier to make the firs move, but Vinny just outwaits him and lays a soft pass over to Prospal for the easy one-timer goal. No chance for Fleury at all.

Points assigned - .5 to Gonchar for being trapped in the offensive zone, .5 to Orpik for not stopping the pass. Hockey 101 dictates that in a 2-on-1 situation the goaltender is responsible for the puck carrier in the event of a shot. The lone defender is responsible for the other man or potential puck receiver.


Updated Hal Gill Quotient Standings:

Hal Gill - 4.34 - 9 GP
Marc-Andre Fleury - 4.08 - 10 GP
Ryan Whitney - 3.5 - 6 GP - TRADED
Kris Letang - 2.84 - 7 GP
Sergei Gonchar - 2.75 - 9 GP
Mark Eaton - 2.33 - 10 GP
Jordan Staal - 2.25 - 10 GP
Brooks Orpik - 2.25 - 10 GP
Rob Scuderi - 1.50 - 10 GP
Matt Cooke - 1.0 - 10 GP
Ruslan Fedotenko - 1.0 10 GP
Pascal Dupuis - .83 - 10 GP
Referee Paul Devorski - 0.5 - 1 Game Reffed
Bill Thomas - .33 - 5 GP - WAIVED

Quick rumor hits:

Mark Recchi did not play tonight against the Pens.

Nik Antropov and Dominic Moore did not play tonight against the Devils. According to Sportsnet.ca, Leafs GM Brian Burke is fielding multiple offers for both of these players.

Tomas Kaberle left the game against NJ in the 3rd period with what appears to be an "injury." Stay tuned on that one.

Derek Morris was once again held out meaning Phoenix is still mulling offers from Eastern Conference teams.

According to Newsday Islanders' blogger Greg Logan, the Pens might in fact be the mystery team in the Bill Guerin saga afterall. Time will tell.

Bruins Need Spark Plug

I'm sure in countless hockey rinks, football fields, and baseball diamonds across the country, parents tell their children that it doesn't matter if you win or lose, it's whether or not you put in the effort and have fun. Play your best, your hardest, but it's okay if you don't win. Because you did your best, your threw it all out there.

For the past three games of this road trip, Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien has seemingly practiced this methodology. Unfortunately for Claude and his Bruins, this method need not apply to the National Hockey League. Yes, there was the December to Remember. However, it is now late February, heading closer and closer to the playoffs and nobody remembers December. They remember a 1-3-1 road trip on the back of back-to-back home losses. 1-4-2 in their last seven.

Play hard boys, but it's okay if you don't win.

The 4-3 loss to Tampa Bay certainly wasn't for lack of effort. The Bruins relentlessly peppered Karri Ramo with shot after shot, 43 (paired with 41 aganst Florida) of them in all and were rewarded with three goals for those efforts. However, some untimely turnovers, poor defending and Manny Fernandez-quality goaltending, he gave up the 4 goals on just 18 shots, ouch.

Yes, the Bruins showed passion and intensity along with terrific energy. Shawn Thornton and Mark Stuart were both involved in fisticuffs with a pair of thrilling duels that energized the team. When PhiKessel netted his early goal things looked great, but then Tampa scored two in fifteen seconds and the energy changed. The Bruins fought back from behind twice, but still fell.

Now, 43 shots on goal are fantastic, but how many of those were bonafide chances? Along with the shots, the intensity of play seemed to wane until after Tampa had gone ahead with 1:33 to play.

Where has Boston's complacency come from? Jumping out to a huge lead in the Eastern Conference? Taking bottom of the conference teams like Tampa for granted?

Maybe it's the coach settling for effort and not results.

Patrice Bergeron still finds himself on the point on the top power play line. He looks timid and uncomfortable along the blue line and rightly so. He's a winger. Put him there already, please. Chara and Ward at the point on the top line did well, they were rewarded with it. Bergeron excelled on the second unit playing along the wall and putting his body in front of the net. Patrice's confidence wasn't raised as highly as Julien may have thought with that erm... empty net goal.

How badly do the B's need a sniper? I brought up the fact that the B's won't be where they need to be unless they find a sniper, and a friend responded; "Our sniper is injured." I laughed. Michael Ryder, as nice a goal scoring option as he is, does not a sniper make. The Bruins need someone who can score 35-40 goals in a season. Kessel is nice, Ryder is nice, having five guys who can net 20+ goals and a dozen who can net 10+ is nice, but you need someone that strikes fear into opposition goalies. Chara can do that, sure, but where's that full time offensive presence? The Sykora, Kovalchuk, Kovalev winger who can score from anywhere inside the zone?

No, the Bruins probably aren't able to get a player of their calibre. Especially with names like Keith Tkachuk and Erik Cole being bandied about. To think I know a couple of people excited about the prospect of Cole being a Bruin, but he's a fraud of a goalscorer. Not nearly the player he was in Carolina and not likely to ever be. Tkachuk? While it'd be nice to see the Massachusetts native play for the B's, he's basically washed up and wouldn't add enough to the team. In the end the fact is that they need a proven out and out scorer. The Bruins have players who can score goals, but they're very, very streaky. Consistency would do wonders for this team.

With the Caps inching ever closer to the B's, they could lose grip on the East's top spot. The Bruins are in a precarious position right now, despite what many may think.

It's already been proven that effort alone isn't enough to do the job.

Bruins vs. Lightning: LIVE!

We're live with Andy, Jack and Naoko in Tampa Bay as the Bruins look to rebound from last night's 2-0 loss to the very physical Panthers. The Bruins have taken points in three of their last six, but closer inspection shows that they've lost five of those six.

It appears as if Jack and Andy called each other this morning to coordinate their suits and ties. Good job, boys.

Ooh, Manny Fernandez is in net tonight. Things could get adventurous.

First Period

18:22 GOAL! 1-0 Bruins - Bruins on a quick break after Aaron Ward blocks a shot. Quick movement, Savard gets it to Phil Kessel who beats Ramo blocker side. The start the Bruins were looking for tonight.

16:31 - They finally make the goal announcement. A lot of cheers, a lot of Bruins fans. Probably the same people who are Sox fans that overtake Tampa Bay Rays home games.

15:16 GOAL! 1-1 - A little triangle offense in front of the net, Jeff Halpern finds the seam in the slot, Pettinger finds him there, a quick little forehand wrister and it's evened up.

15:01 GOAL! 2-1 Lightning - WOW! Tampa chips it down into the corner off the face off, Adam Hall gets behind the net, wraps it around and under Manny's pad. Things have gone sour for the Bruins fast.

First commercial break... without the commercials. Looks at the benches, an overlay for a segment being tested. Good stuff. The Bruins started out with a lot of energy and they've been dampened quickly by those first quick goals. The Bruins need to find some physicality. They're holding the puck fairly well, but they need to hit some people and truly take over. They're not out. Nothing to worry about yet.

Video Highlights Courtesy Of NHL.com


10:32 - FIGHT! And Shawn Thornton is rocked. David Koci gets him down onto the ice after a few good rights and it's a quick end to the battle. It's the Bruins first fighting major in seven games now. There's the physical play I was looking for. Good job Shawn.

7:53 - It's amazing to watch this team night in and night out and see them dominating in shots almost every time out. 8-4 at this point, and they're generally far and away creating more opportunities to score than their opponents, they just can't seem to capitalize.

6:01 - Andrew Ference rings the post and Wideman just misses it... wide, man. Ference is sent off for a trip. Getting dicey is Tampa can convert on this power play. Savard had nicely won the faceoff, Lucic cycled it through to Ference who had the lane, just centimeters away from a goal, really.

4:50 - Bruins effectively kill the penalty when Fernandez is sent head over heels and an interference is called. We'll see a brief Bruins power play shortly. The 0/1 certainly won't help the statistics.

3:18 GOAL! 2-2 Did I say 0/1? Andrew Ference has his first goal of the year! Beautiful rotational passing from the B's, cross-seam pass for Ference, right onto the tape and it beats Ramo through the five. Bruins kill the penalty strongly and make the most of their short power play!

2:53 - FIGHT! Gary Roberts and Mark Stuart! Haymakers from both men! Stuart missing over the top, Roberts swinging furiously and falls down on top of Stuart! What action! The old man showing he can still bring it!

:29.7 - Tampa Bay on a powerplay after Shawn Thornton received a double minor in the aftermath of the fight between Stuart and Roberts. David Krejci breaks down the left side drags it in close on Ramo who makes a terrific glove save.

End of the first period, the Bolts will have 2:37 left on a power play with a clean sheet of ice. Up and down through the first, looking on the up. Good physical play like they needed, creating some good shorthanded chances at the end of the first and generally looking excited and energized in this game.

Second Period

18:18 - The 'Ning miss a wonderful chance, Halpern alone in front, gets a weak wrister off of Fernandez's pad and cleared away from goal by Wideman. The Bruins effectively kill the double minor, conceding just two shots.

16:08 - Bruins powerplay as Malik gets set to the box for interference on Milan Lucic.

14:34 - Bruins struggling to keep the puck in Tampa Bay's zone. Martin St. Louis tries to clear, right onto the tap of PJ Axelsson, slaps it at Ramo, but a glove save. First real chance on the power play with :26 remaining on it.

12:33 - Ah, highlights of Zdeno Chara's October 2007 mauling of David Koci. Good stuff. I bet Koci isn't ready to see his face look like that anytime soon.

10:00 GOAL! 3-2 Lightning - It's another old-timer, Mark Recchi! The puck squirts by Chara, but he's able to recover, the wings never track back to help out, Josef Melichar takes a nice wirster and Recchi is able to beautifully redirect it in for the goal. Good chances at both ends, but the 'Ning are making 'em count.

8:24 - Artyukhin is sent to the box for tripping, oddly it seemed to occur moments after an offside whistle was blown. However, I'm sure the B's will take it.

6:24 - Tampa Bay kills the penalty. Why doesn't Claude Julien notice how much the B's top power play line struggles with Patrice Bergeron at the point? They struggle to create chances, Bergeron had a shot blocked. He works much better on the wing, not on the point. Wake up, Claude!

4:43 GOAL! 3-3 - Chuck Kobasew rushes up the right wing, crosses it into the slot for Zdeno Chara who beats Ramo with a wrister! The captain with an uncharacteristic goal to even the game and you can imagine the Bruins will play with more fire from here on out.

3:09 - David Krejci creates himself two or three chances in front of the net. Jack Edwards calls it "classic" David Krejci as if he's been playing in the league for fifteen years. Jack is blushing with a man crush.

2:08 - Chara has a word with Koci after Koci goes after Stephane Yelle. Perhaps Koci would like another broken face.

:18 - Phil Kessel rings the post as the Bruins are cycling the puck through the zone creating opportunities. The period ends with the Bruins looking stronger as the did after tying it near the end of the first. The physical tempo continues to increase for the Bruins and it can only mean good things. I can't emphasize this enough for the Bruins. If they're physical and intense, they'll win.

Bruins lead shots 28-14, still 2:1. They need to stay physical, tighten up the defense and good things will happen.

Third Period

17:21 - Stephane Yelle is going to the box after Artyukhin takes a stick to the face. No blood, it's a high stick, two minutes only. Lightning have been more likely to score early on in the third and the Bruins certainly don't want to go down a goal again.

17:16 - Ryan Malone kills the penalty for the Bruins, two minutes for hooking Chara. Tampa Bay is now 0/4 on the power play tonight.

16:17 - An offside call. Been a quiet night for Vincent Lecavalier and Steven Stamkos, eh?

14:23 - Shane Hnidy gets hard after an icing call, everybody congregates behind the net. Boarding call on Artyukhin for his not so intelligent play. Bruins are now on the power play. Let's see them capitalize. They know they need a win and they can win this game.

7:27 - The Bruins are certainly trying to make something happen offensively, but they just aren't. The puck is bouncing around a lot, making it difficult to get a stick on it, not to mention a few Bruins players have had to return to the locker room because of skate issues.

There hasn't been much going on in the third since the Lightning killed the Bruins power play. I sense overtime right now, but anything could happen.

5:01 - Ramo makes a pair of incredible saves on Phil Kessel. Savard skates into Tampa's zone and flicks to Kessel on the right, Kessel wrists it, Ramo saves, Kessel snaps the rebound and Tampa clears into the stands. Boston has been controlling the puck, showing they want it more at the moment. Ramo certainly standing tall.

Shots are 42-17 for the Bruins, 14-3 in the third. Continuing to put up huge swaths of shots on goal.

4:45 - Krejci lays Gary Roberts out and gets called for interference. He certainly got his two minutes worth with that hit.

The 'Ning are 0/4 on the power play with 6 shots tonight.

2:50 - Oh noes! Delay of game on Andrew Ference after he clears it out into the stands. Tampa will be two men up for five seconds and on the power play until just under a minute left. Very important span of time coming here.

1:33 GOAL! 4-3 Lightning - It's Vinny Prospal on the power play! Halpern spins nicely to give himself space to make a pass over to Prospal. Beating Fernandez high and glove side.

This is the third time tonight the Bruins have fallen behind tonight. Could it be too much to surmount with so little time to go?

1:04 - Fernandez is pulled and Tampa ices it. Bruins need to win this face off cleanly.

Thirteenth place Tampa Bay has beaten the Bruins 4-3 here in Tampa. The Bruins have now lost 6 of their last 7 and 4 of 5 on this road trip. They return home for Tuesday night to host the Panthers.

The physical play was nice, the compete-level was nice, the Bruins wanted this game, they should've taken something out of it and just weren't able to. Karri Ramo made 40 saves and a number of them were spectacular, saves that should have been Boston goals. The Lightning are hugely outshot by the Bruins yet come away with the win.

You've got the make the most of your chances. Tampa Bay did that, Boston did not.

I Don't Get It

I have been meaning to update this blog for some time now, but have been utterly disgusted by what I have seen from the Pens this season.

Everything seemed to be going well until Marc-Andre Fleury missed a few games with a groin injury. Then, Dany Sabourin comes in and sucks up the joint and we haven't recovered since.

Now, granted injuries have played a major part of why this ever deepening suckfest has continued.

Why Michael Therrien hasn't been fired yet is beyond me. There hasn't been any consistency in the roster for most of the season. We're rotating 7 defensemen through the lineup nightly.

Again, injuries play into this, but it's no wonder the team looks out of sync. How can you possibly build chemistry when you don't know who you'll be playing with on a given night?

Now we're on a 4-game losing streak after losing to Tampa Bay Lightning tonight.

Wait....we won?

Really?......Wow.

Anyway, I could go on and on, but tonight's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning was an eye-opener.

Down 3-0 after two, Evgeni Malkin spoke up in the locker room and essentially called everyone out. Now his lack of English speaking skills might have made this speech an instant YouTube classic, but it apparently worked.

The Pens stormed back to tie it and then Malkin fittingly gets the game winner in overtime with 16 seconds left after Max Talbot got robbed by the refs just seconds earlier.

Everyone reporting on the Pens has given a few examples of supposed "turning points" to get out of this funk. There's the two solid wins against the New York Rangers in the last couple weeks, a big win over the Philadelphia Flyers blah blah blah.

Already I'm seeing people calling this another "turning point." I really want to believe it this time, but this team has not responded well to any of the aforementioned big wins. They come out almost expecting to win and you can't just win games because you want to win. You need to put in the effort for 60 minutes, grind it out and do whatever it takes. Period.

Tonight's game was very different from the other big wins thought. Granted it was against the hapless Bolts, but maybe just maybe they'll wake up this time.

There's also a ridiculous rumor on hockeybuzz.com from Mr. Hardly Ever Right Eklund saying that the Pens might bring Mark Recchi back to town.

Really? Are you kidding me?

Don't get me wrong, Recchi is a legend in Pittsburgh and I'd welcome him back, but we need scorers. Not guys on the verge of retirement. We could use some veterans on the roster sure, but come on.

The only upside to this deal is that I would be able to take the tags off the Recchi jersey I got as a gift 2 days before we cut him two years ago. Yeah, I'm one of those people that doesn't wear jerseys of people not on the team. It's a pet peeve of mine showing up to games and seeing wrong jerseys.

What would we give Tampa for Recchi anyway? One of the draft picks we got from them this past offseason as compensation for them speaking to Gary Roberts and Ryan Malone?

Get off your high horse Eklund for the love of God. I could sit around all day and post "rumors" that could go down from "sources." I don't doubt you know some people, but I'm fairly certain half the rumors you post are trades you concocted in NHL 09.

Not to mention his other rumor right now about the Dallas Stars thinking about bringing Sean Avery back.

Excuse me for a second.

(Excessive laughter....wiping tears away.)

You have got to be absolutely kidding me. Why would they bring him back now when the team is just starting to turn things around and play better? Makes no sense. Not to mention not even the Rangers would want him at this point.

Get a clue man.