It all prompted us to take a look at the power play/penalty kill differential for every team across the league. But we needed more; we needed some perspective from the league. Luckily, Stephen Walkom, NHL director of officiating, was more than willing to talk it out.
In hindsight, the Philadelphia Flyers decision to sign Daniel Briere to an eight-year, $52 million contract is looking to be a rather poor investment. That is, if you ignore the original insanity of giving a player that type of contract when he's topped 75 points only once in his career. And that's when he's actually on the ice.
After missing 51 games this season with a groin injury, Briere returned to the Flyers lineup on March 1, and lasted just two full games. In his third game back, Thursday's 5-1 loss to Calgary, the 31-year-old forward left the contest after aggravating the same groin injury, and general manager Paul Holmgren didn't exactly sound optimistic when talking about his status.
Ever since Bruce Boudreau took over as head coach of the Washington Capitals on the day after Thanksgiving 2007, the hockey news out of Washington, D.C. has been uniformly positive. There was the last year's late-season drive to make the playoffs, followed by an offseason filled with awards, a key to the city for Alex Ovechkin and elevated expectations going into the 2008-09 NHL season -- expectations that, thus far, have been fulfilled as the team surged to second place in the Eastern Conference.
According to Miller, the Penguins can't compete with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin making as much money as they do, because it forces the Penguins to surround them with bargain basement players. This is apparently because Ray Shero couldn't get his star players to sign cap friendly contracts like Ken Holland did in Detroit. Because of this, the Penguins must (his opinion, not mine) trade Malkin.
A quick recap of yesterday's action from around the National Hockey League.
Today's post will be primarily dedicated to that epic Stanley Cup Finals rematch in Motown because, well, that's the type of game the NHL should be dreaming about. The Penguins overcame third period deficits of 5-2 and 6-4 as they won their fourth in a row, 7-6. It won't make up for a Stanley Cup Finals defeat, obviously, but man, it still feels good.
For the first 45 minutes or so, the Red Wings were doing to the Penguins what they did during last season's Finals ... frustrating them and, at times, dominating play with a relentless puck-possession game, refusing to give the Penguins an inch of space. When Henrik Zetterberg floated that shot behind Marc-Andre Fleury to make it 5-2 with just over ten minutes to play, it seemed as if there was no chance for the Penguins to mount any sort of come back.
Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, something clicked for the Penguins as they out-shot the Red Wings 13-5 over the final ten minutes of regulation, and 4-0 in overtime.
Holy cow. The Penguins and the Flyers are playing in the Eastern Conference Finals. If you live or have lived in Pennsylvania, you understand what a big deal this is. The players from these teams don't like each other. The fans of these two teams despise each other. There's a ton of civic pride on the line here. This is everything fans look for in a playoff series.
But to make this series all about the rivalry doesn't give these two teams the respect they deserve. The Penguins have played great hockey since January. The Flyers have been on fire since around the trade deadline, when everyone had left them for dead. They both disposed of their very talented second round opponents with surprising ease. There's really no doubt left that these two teams are the best teams in the Eastern Conference right now. The rivalry only heightens the intensity.
Credit Snoopyjode from The Sidney Crosby Show for digging up the following random clip. Earlier this month, Wolf Blitzer was interviewing former Republican Congressman Dick Armey and Democratic strategiest Donna Brazile on CNN's Situation Room. At the 1:42 mark, Armey drops Sidney Crosby's name and suggests that if Hillary Clinton could gain his endorsement, it could carry her to victory in the Pennsylvania Democratic Primary.
At the 2:09 mark a puzzled Blitzer asks Armey, "Who's Sidney Crosby?":
As we noted yesterday, the Pennsylvania Democratic Primary, which seems like it's been going on forever, will be held tomorrow. And as for Armey's analysis -- which according to the YouTube page was dispensed a couple of weeks ago -- some folks in the Eastern part of the state might actually go for a Daniel Briere endorsement.
The results of the XM/NHL All-Star Fan Balloting, Presented by 2K Sports (Wow, two corporate sponsorships for one process? Score!)
Eastern Conference Martin Brodeur Andrei Markov, Zdeno Chara Sidney Crosby, Vinny Lecavalier, Daniel Alfredsson
Western Conference Roberto Luongo Nicklas Lidstrom, Dion Phaneuf Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Jarome Iginla
That's three Red Wings in the starting six! Of course, given how they dominate the league, it's hardly surprising. Sidney? He's the man. I don't seem to see an Alexander Ovechkin anywhere on that roster, do you? ;) He didn't even finish fourth in the East, as that honor fell to Daniel Briere.
"But Jes, nobody gives a tootin' about the All-Star Game!"
Dammit! Gary Bettman's corporate schmoozefest will go on, whether you like it or not! Be a good consumer peon and 'enjoy' a slow game of meaningless shinny before plunking down $350 on a 'stylish' Rbk Edge jersey.
The fallout from the twin departures of Chris Drury and Daniel Briere from the Buffalo Sabres continues to linger. So this morning I decided to use a common barometer for measuring organizational angst -- I called up The Sabres Store, located in HSBC Arena, to see what they're doing with that tainted traitor gear. The gentleman who answered wouldn't give me his name, but did disclose that Drury and Briere jerseys which had retailed for about $150 on Saturday had been quickly slashed down to a mere $39 each. (Cheap!)
Meanwhile, the two biggest stories in the wake of these defections involve a previous attempt at signing Drury and the reaction of the players' former teammates to their departures. Tim Graham of the Buffalo News had the first scoop:
The Buffalo News learned a bombshell on Monday, and it will go down as one of the all-time embarrassments in Sabres history -- bigger than the broken fax machine, Artem Kryukov and the tumbling Jumbotron all rolled into one.
Drury last fall agreed to a four-year, $21.5 million contract to stay with the Sabres, a source with intimate knowledge of the negotiations told The News. The source said the sides made proposals -- the Sabres offered $20 million, Drury asked for $23 million -- and met in the middle. Then the Sabres either simply forgot or didn't feel the need make anything official. Maybe they didn't want to hurt Briere's feelings, but the Sabres never sent Drury's agent the agreed-upon contract. After waiting for weeks, Drury instructed his agent to rescind their compliance because, the source said, Drury thought it was bad business.
"[Drury and Briere] better hope they didn't teach us too much because they're going to have to contend against us. Leadership is changing hands on our team, but the attitude still will be there. I'm going to make sure to the best of my abilities to keep them in our rear-view mirror."
The Philadelphia Flyers woke up a lazy Sunday afternoon of "free agent frenzy" by signing the first of the big three UFA centers, Daniel Briere of the Buffalo Sabres, to an eight-year contract (!) worth $52 million that contains a "no movement" clause, according to TSN. The deal will average $6.5 million against the cap annually. Good to see the salary cap hasn't impeded that great NHL tradition of building a contender by buying as many players as you can.
Daniel Briere just signed with Philly Eight years of no-trade hockey for $52 milly Buffalo can see Daniel waving goodbye God it looks like Daniel is the newest Fly Guy
In hindsight, the Philadelphia Flyers decision to sign 
Ever since Bruce Boudreau took over as head coach of the Washington Capitals on the day after Thanksgiving 2007, the hockey news out of Washington, D.C. has been uniformly positive. There was the last year's late-season drive to make the playoffs, followed by an offseason filled with awards, a key to the city for Alex Ovechkin and elevated expectations going into the 2008-09 NHL season -- expectations that, thus far, have been fulfilled as the team surged to second place in the Eastern Conference. 
On Saturday night, TSN hockey analyst Gord Miller became the latest person to jump on the 
A quick recap of yesterday's action from around the National Hockey League.
The votes are in! No, I'm not talking about those boring US Presidential primaries, 
The fallout from 
The Philadelphia Flyers woke up a lazy Sunday afternoon of "free agent frenzy" by signing the first of the big three UFA centers, 
