Fun With Eklund, Bruins "Rumors"

Came across two gems from our good friend Eklund today.

Eklund's "rumors" will be in quotations...

"Phil Kessel on the move?

There are also rumors that the Bruins are possibly considering moving Phil Kessel in a deal. Perhaps to free up cap space to bring in a defenseman or bigger power forward..."

Seriously? So the Bruins are going to trade away their leading goal scorer for a bigger power forward?

I wonder if it has any correlation with the next rumor here...

"As I wrote earlier tonight...I was checking in on some rumors that Erik Cole could be headed to the NJ Devils....It does have some legs and I will be calling it an e2 for now...but don't count out Boston for Cole AT ALL..."

Erik Cole (15 goals, 10 assists) for Phil Kessel (25 goals, 20 assists)? Sounds fair...

It's been said to death, but Eklund should not be allowed to report on anything about hockey, ever.

I've also read on ESPN Insider that Cole for Sobotka and Lashoff could be a possibility.

I've got to think that B's GM Peter Chiarelli is smart enough to know not to mess with the chemistry the team has. I can see them adding in a player to supplement what they currently have, but it'd be rubbish and nonsense to completely change the shape of the Bruins.

Cole isn't the kind of player the B's need. Sure he's physical, but he's not a goal scorer. Kessel has as many goals as Cole has points, so what would be the point of trading Kessel to bring in that "big power forward?" While enhancing the physicality, it handicaps the offense.

I don't see Erik Cole being a Bruin by March 4th.

EDIT

Major laugh here, as this blog was originally posted around 7:30 (opened at 7:13), Eklund had an update around 7:57 that I just picked up on.

"No doubt whatsoever in my mind at this point that Boston is leading the way for Erik Cole. Working on more of what could be heading back but I feel very confident that Cole will be a Bruin this time next week.."

I feel that between Eklund and I, one of us will be right. It will be me.

Pens Falter, Wings Dominate

Rather than look at the game in general let’s look at how this loss is actually a good thing for the Penguins shall we? Everyone will probably write something about the game and what happened in it to turn the tide. Let me just do that in one sentence.

Malkin missed the penalty shot in the second period.

That’s it. That’s what turned the tide in the game. Nothing more, nothing less. If he scores, the Pens win and I’m on here typing all in caps in celebration.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about this since we went up 3-0 on the Rangers are were 7-0 in the playoffs. No one is ever going to go 16-0. No one has even gone 8-0 since the Oilers did it in the 80’s. The longer this winning streak went on the more damage it could have potentially caused these young Pens.

How you ask?

Winning gives you a false sense of security. It makes you think that you don’t have to try as hard in order to win. It makes you expect to win rather than working and earning the wins. I’m not saying the Penguins quit in this game at all. The Rangers were the better team tonight, plain and simple.

This loss tonight should do a couple things for the Penguins. First off, the loss will remind them of the feelings they had last year when they were getting stomped by the Senators. It should remind them how it feels to lose and remind them of what they were doing in the first seven games in order to win. It should give them the bad taste in their mouth to go out and play harder just so they don’t have to see the opposition with smiles on their faces.

The loss tonight will shatter any sense of superiority that these young Pens might have developed during these playoffs. There was some tensions that boiled over at the end of the game tonight, but since the next game isn’t until Sunday, I’m not as worried about a momentum carry over. Expect the Penguins to come out absolutely flying in Game 5.

Henrik Lundqvist will have to be ready to face a barrage of shots and what will no doubt be a very hostile Mellon Arena crowd. Man I wish I was going to be there for this. At least I’ll be able to watch this one and not have to worry about listening to it on a severe delay and having Gopher ruin any suspense like tonight.

I’m also not totally upset about the loss tonight because if you’ll recall I only asked the Penguins to split in NY and head home up 3-1. As a Pens fan, I can’t really be that upset about getting what I asked for right? How often does something like that happen? I wish it were that simple about winning championships. If it were you’d only see the Red Sox, Patriots and Penguins winning everything every year. (Yes, I grew up near Boston. I became a Pens fan when the first game I ever saw when I was about 5 or 6 was a Bruins/Pens game and Mario Lemieux went nuts and the Penguins won easily. The love affair began that young and hasn’t ever faltered.)

At any rate, I hope we pull this off on Sunday and can get some time to rest up before the next round. I’d also just like to add that I’d love very much to see the Canadiens come back and at least force a Game 7. Main reason being that I want the Pens next opponent to be beaten and battered, especially since both of those teams went the full seven games in their opening series. This would mean that provided the Penguins win in Game 5, that they would have played nine total games in the playoffs and if Montreal forces Game 7 the winner would have played 14 games. That’s the only reason I want Montreal to come back.

Let’s just hope we take care of business on Sunday.

As for the Red Wings, there's not much to say about this one. Johan Franzen singehandedly beat the Colorado Avalanche. Franzen scored 9 goals in the series which was the combined total of what the Avs did in four games.

The Avs were terrible in every game in this series and didn't deserve to even be on the same ice surface as the Wings.

Jose Theodore finished the series with a GAA probably over 10. I don't have the patience to figure this out and nor do I care. Needless to say, he was awful. In game 4 he let up 3 on 15 shots in the first period and was pulled....again. The guy I really feel for in this series was Peter Budaj who came in and faced a shooting gallery already down by and insurmountable amount.

I wonder if anyone in the Avs organization made a call to Patrick Roy. I'm not saying he would have stepped in and won the series, but he at least would have skated down to the other end of the ice to kick the crap out of Chris Osgood and show his son how to really fight.

In case you haven't seen this by now, here you go.



Anyway, there's not much I can even say about this and my head is throbbing from trying to figure out what went wrong. Complain all you want about injuries and such, but this was beyond any of that. This was a pathetic showing from the 2001 Colorado Avalanche.

In other news, guess what this weekend is? THE KENTUCKY DERBY! Now I haven't had much chance to look over the field, but don't worry I'll have my pick before the race.

I'm merely stating that this is the greatest two minutes in sports. Horse racing doesn't get enough credit. I'll admit, I wasn't a huge fan until a few years ago when Cheech got me hooked in college. I didn't realize everything that went into picking winners and how to chart a race and such. I still don't get it. I understand the logic behind it and know what I need to happen in a race for my schmuck pick to actually come in though.

I never miss the Derby, even before I met Cheech. Anyone who misses the Derby should have their sports watching privileges revoked for 6 months. Yeah, it's that important and fun to watch. What's sad is that the only way horse racing will return to it's glory days and get any attention whatsoever is for there to be a Triple Crown winner. Right now ESPN pays less attention to horse racing than they do the NHL and that's pretty hard to beat. Even the WNBA gets more play on SportsCenter than the NHL. Maybe if the Stanley Cup Finals go seven games, it might make it into the first 15 minutes of the show. Of course it will be behind Game 1 of the NBA conference finals and game 37 of some random baseball game, but hey it's in the first segment of the show.

I need to stop writing for tonight before I get really annoyed. Besides, it's my weekend and I intend on having a lot of fun.

This Week's Hot And Cold Teams

Normally I would have had a couple more posts up already, but things came up hence the delay. Life is like that I suppose.

Anyway, I was reading the latest power rankings on ESPN.com and got inspired to do something similar of my own. If you look at the comments section on the ESPN list, you’ll notice everyone yapping back and forth about why their favorite team isn’t #1.

Here’s the thing, the people doing the list aren’t rocket scientists. They’re normal people like you and me who actually get paid to write this fodder for the masses to chew on. I do get a kick out of reading the comments though. Inevitably there’s some poor sap who barely watches hockey who announces to the world that he/she is an idiot and the entire message board pounces on them like a pack of hyenas taking down an Impala in the African wilderness. (I just watched disc one of the BBC’s “Planet Earth.” If you haven’t seen it, go buy it and watch it on an HD television and prepare to be blown away like I was to see the boy-band era actually exist for longer than 30 seconds.)

Got a little off topic there, but here’s what I’m going to do every once in a while. Might be every week, but who knows. I’m going to pick the three hottest teams in the league and the three teams that should be acting like Tanya Harding asking the judges for a re-do. If you haven’t seen this crying fiasco by now, enjoy.



3 Teams On Fire

#3 Boston Bruins

The Bruins are currently the 6-seed in the Eastern Conference with 77 points. The team is 7-1-2 in their last ten games and is closing in on the Ottawa Senators in the division. They sit three points back of Ottawa and four back of division leader Montreal.

This team has been a pleasant surprise this season and gives the city of Boston another shot at a championship. The Bruins haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1971-72 and I don’t see the streak ending this season.

There is a lot of potential on this team especially in young guy Phil Kessel who will be the leader of this team for years to come. It remains to be seen if he will suffer the same fate as another young guy who was supposed to be the franchise player of the century in Joe Thornton. We all know how that ended up.

#2 New York Rangers

The Rangers are currently the 7-seed in the Eastern Conference with 77 points. Tied with the Bruins above but the B’s have more wins and thus have the 6-seed. They sit five points back of New Jersey and six points back of the conference leading Pittsburgh Penguins and are 7-0-3 in their last ten games.

To quote a famous rapper and then distort the line for my own no-good: “Will the real New York Rangers please stand up?”

Just because I can, I’m going to rant on the Rangers a little.

Where was this display all year? Why have guys like Brendan Shanahan and Jaromir Jagr been making me question why I even follow hockey in the first place if I can’t dominate my fantasy leagues like I have for years. (Shut up Gopher, you got lucky and you know it and I’ll see you in the playoffs this year to take back what is mine.)

Does anyone really want to face this team right now in the playoffs? A month ago I would’ve been jumping up and down with anticipation of the first-round bye, but now the Rangers actually look like the legit contender we all thought they would be at the start of the season. The only question now is, can they keep it up or is this just another chapter in the up and down season they’ve had?

#1 Anaheim Ducks

The Ducks currently sit as the 4-seed in the Western Conference with 83 points. They trail the Pacific Division leading Dallas Stars by four points and the conference leading Red Wings by 11. The Ducks are also 9-1-0 in their last ten games.

It finally looks like the Ducks are once again Stanley Cup contenders and could make a solid defense of their title.

The team really started to turn things around when Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer opted out of retirement and decided to come back for one more year.

Selanne has 12 points (7 goals, 5 assists) in 12 games since returning to the lineup and Niedermayer has brought more stability to the back line.

It’s not a far fetched idea that they could catch and pass the Stars and head into the playoffs as the two or three-seed.

3 Teams Who Should Forget This Week Happened

Normally I would include teams like the Thrashers, Kings, Lighting etc., but it would get old saying the same thing week after week so let’s look at the playoff chasing teams who are slipping.

#3 Detroit Red Wings

This may look weird being on this list, but the Wings have been struggling recently. To keep form with the rest of the team intros: the Wings are currently the 1-seed in the Western Conference with 94 points and lead the 2-seed Stars y seven points.

There’s not much to say about this team. They got out to such a huge lead from the start of the season that this slump isn’t even hurting them. If anything it shows they are human and can be beat. Chris Osgood has finally returned to Earth after being on one ridiculous streak and has now been told he’ll be starting only five of the team’s remaining 15 games so Dominik Hasek can get some WD-40 into his joints and be ready to go for the playoffs.

#2 Philadelphia Flyers

The Flyers are currently clinging to a one point lead over the Buffalo Sabres for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 74 points. They are 3-4-3 in their last 10 games.

After losing 10 straight games the Flyers have put together a better week and are back in the playoffs right now, but the injuries they suffered appeared to show that their younger players and farm system are not ready to carry the load just yet.

If they can get healthy they could return to mid-season form where they were leading the Atlantic Division. They’ve shown (much to my utter annoyance) that they can hang with playoff teams, especially Pittsburgh who they would face in the first-round right now.

They better start winning and winning fast because not only are the Sabres one point back, but the Capitals are two points back and the Islanders are only three points back.

#1 Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators are currently the 5-seed in the Eastern Conference with 80 points. They trail the 4-seed New Jersey Devils by two points and Northeast Division leading Montreal by one point.

My my, I guess the saying “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” applies as if it was written about this team. Like the Red Wings, the Senators looked unstoppable at the start of the season, but since the All-Star break the team has been in a tailspin.

They have had some injuries to key players such as Dany Heatley and captain Daniel Alfredsson, but the team has looked like they don’t care about playing hard on some nights. It’s almost as if the rest of the team quits when “The Big 3” (Jason Spezza being the 3rd Musketeer in this equation) are in the lineup.

Let’s also look at the goaltending situation. Martin Gerber has shown moment of brilliance, but has also shown he can’t stop a beach ball at times. His poor wife must spend hours rubbing aloe on his neck to ease the pain of the sunburn.

Same goes for Ray Emery who I believe thinks he’s Muhammad Ali (who’s depicted on his helmet.) Most enforcers don’t even want to throw down with Brian McGratton and yet Ray-Ray has done it on a couple of occasions this year alone.

Unless something drastic happens in Ottawa in the next month, this team is going to be a pushover in the first-round. Emery showed last year that he can be a solid goalie that can carry a team deep in the playoffs, but he hasn’t even resembled his former self for more than a handful of games this season.