The real NHL awards will be handed out Thursday night in Las Vegas, so FanHouse decided to hand out its own special awards for the 2008-09 season.
While there are still many folks firmly planted on both the pro and con sides of the shootout debate, I think one thing that everyone can agree on is that the skill competition does produce some amazing highlight reel goals. Today, I have the pleasure of unveiling the FanHouse nominees for the best shootout goal of the 2008-09 season.
It's not quite a "nearly catastrophic testicle injury," but Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar had his own set of problems during the Stanley Cup playoffs. After being involved in a knee-to-knee collision with Washington's Alex Ovechkin in the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Penguins' No. 1 defenseman suffered a partially torn MCL that sidelined him for just two games. Had the same injury occurred in, say, November, it probably would have kept him out of the lineup for a couple of months.
It's the second major injury of the season for the 35-year-old Gonchar, as he missed the first four-and-a-half months of the season due to a shoulder injury suffered in a preseason game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
So I'm watching the morning Sportscenter, and after going through the highlights of Friday's Game 7, I hear Neil Everett drop the following line: "I just Googled Max Talbot to find out more about him and the first thing I find is a bunch of pictures of him shirtless, kissing girls, so he must be the dude."
Now you know, Neil. Now you know. With his performance in Pittsburgh's 2-1 win on Friday night, Talbot wrote his chapter in Penguins history by scoring both goals in the deciding game of the Stanley Cup final. While this puts him on the NHL map, he's has been a superstar in Pittsburgh for the past two seasons, not only for his gritty, hard-working style of play, but for his flawless performances as a spokesperson (sort of) for A & L Motors in Pittsburgh.
During the Penguins' game 4 win on Thursday night, captain Sidney Crosby finally had his bust-out game of the Stanley Cup Final, recording a goal (the eventual game-winner) and an assist in Pittsburgh's 4-2 win to tie the series at two games apiece. The performance helped him eclipse the 30-point mark this postseason, joining his teammate, Evgeni Malkin, who is currently the leading scorer in the playoffs with 35 points, putting the duo in some elite, historic company.
After asking where the bitterness was in the Penguins-Hurricanes series, it took us all of one game to potentially find some. Late in the third period of Pittsburgh's 3-2 win on Monday night, Penguins forward Matt Cooke and Hurricanes forward Erik Cole were involved in a knee-on-knee collision that resulted in Cole leaving the game and not returning. The Hurricanes, as one would expect, weren't all that happy with the play.
On Wednesday, the NHL announced there will be no punishment for Cooke in the form of a suspension, while Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports there is no word yet on whether or not he will be issued a fine.
After jumping out to a 1-0 series lead in the Western Conference Final, Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock held a press conference on Monday and fielded a variety of questions from the media. For the most part, it was your typical, run-of-the-mill press conference.
About half way through, a reporter started asking Babcock about how he once joked that he was ready for the salary cap to break up the young talent the Chicago Blackhawks have assembled over the years. In Babcock's mind, he wasn't joking.
The Red Wings and Blackhawks opened their Western Conference Final on Sunday with a 5-2 Detroit win to take an early 1-0 lead in the series. The best news for hockey fans, however, might be the report that some people across the country actually saw it happen.
According to Sports Business Daily, via Steve Lepore at Puck The Media, Sunday's game drew a 2.0/5 overnight rating, which is the highest mark the NHL has received on NBC (excluding Stanley Cup Finals games and Winter Classic games) since the network started airing games following the lockout.
There was a time when my favorite sport was, without hesitation, baseball. Recently, however, my interest in the game has been lost. Not because of a steroid scandal or the incompetence of Bud Selig, but mostly because the team I grew up cheering for, the Pittsburgh Pirates, has been a Major League Baseball team in name only and is currently working on its 17th consecutive losing season with no end in sight.
You might argue that makes me a fair-weather fan, but I disagree. My interest is so low that if, by some perfect storm -- like the rest of the National League halting operations and disbanding from the league -- the Pirates actually won something, I still probably wouldn't care as much as I should. I just don't care about baseball anymore, but I certainly don't begrudge those who still do. It's still a great game, even if my interest is at an all-time low.
Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury didn't have the best playoff series of his career against the Washington Capitals, but he managed to save his best moment for the biggest stage, robbing Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin in the opening minutes of Pittsburgh's commanding 6-2 on Wednesday night.
Ovechkin worked his way behind the Pittsburgh defense and stormed in by himself, like he's done so many times in his career, and had an opportunity to blow the roof off the building with the all-important first goal.
WASHINGTON -- Just a couple of minutes into the second period of Wednesday night's big hockey game at the raucous arena here nicknamed The Phone Booth, let's just say the line went dead. All of a sudden, you could barely hear a thing, except for that scraping sound that metal blades make sliding across the ice.
At this particular point, they were the skates laced to the feet -- the clay feet, as it turns out -- of Simeon Varlamov, the young goalie for the hometown Capitals. He was skating to the swinging door of his team's bench, head down, and would not come back. A fourth puck had just screamed past him and into the back of the net
The real NHL awards will be handed out Thursday night in Las Vegas, so FanHouse decided to hand out its own special awards for the 2008-09 season.
It's not quite a "nearly catastrophic testicle injury," but Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar had his own set of problems during the Stanley Cup playoffs. After being involved in a knee-to-knee collision with Washington's Alex Ovechkin in the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Penguins' No. 1 defenseman suffered a partially torn MCL that sidelined him for just two games. Had the same injury occurred in, say, November, it probably would have kept him out of the lineup for a couple of months. 
After asking where the bitterness was in the Penguins-Hurricanes series, it took us all of one game to potentially find some. Late in the third period of Pittsburgh's 3-2 win on Monday night, Penguins forward Matt Cooke and Hurricanes forward Erik Cole were involved in a knee-on-knee collision that resulted in Cole leaving the game and not returning. The Hurricanes, as one would expect, weren't all that happy with the play. 
After jumping out to a 1-0 series lead in the Western Conference Final, Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock held a press conference on Monday and fielded a variety of questions from the media. For the most part, it was your typical, run-of-the-mill press conference. 
The Red Wings and Blackhawks opened their Western Conference Final on Sunday with a 5-2 Detroit win to take an early 1-0 lead in the series. The best news for hockey fans, however, might be the report that some people across the country actually saw it happen. 
There was a time when my favorite sport was, without hesitation, baseball. Recently, however, my interest in the game has been lost. Not because of a steroid scandal or the incompetence of Bud Selig, but mostly because the team I grew up cheering for, the Pittsburgh Pirates, has been a Major League Baseball team in name only and is currently working on its 17th consecutive losing season with no end in sight. 
WASHINGTON -- Just a couple of minutes into the second period of Wednesday night's big hockey game at the raucous arena here nicknamed The Phone Booth, let's just say the line went dead. All of a sudden, you could barely hear a thing, except for that scraping sound that metal blades make sliding across the ice.
