Good night: Who wouldn’t be pumped for the Winter Classic now?
The Lead
OH BOY ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN WHEN THESE TWO TEAMS GET TOGETHER!
Yup, I remember when the League was like “Yeah Winter Classic at Fenway you guys pumped?” and everyone was all, “Yesssss do we get to see Ovie play outside because we love Ovie and the rest of the Caps are pretty cool too great job NHL!” And then they were like, “Capitals? Noooo, the Bruins aren’t playing them.”
A little confusing. But okay, maybe the Rangers. Boston/New York. Those towns hate each other. League wasn’t having that either. They said, “How would you guys like to see the Bruins play the FLYERS?” I mean, I guess I kinda do. Two pretty decent teams. Fun hockey can come from that. Oh and they fight a reasonable amount as well. Bonus points there. On paper it seemed like this harebrained scheme might not be the worst one the NHL ever cooked up.
And then this year the Flyers stunk. Like, badly. So bad they had to hire the coach that got fired from the worst team in the league as a potential upgrade. No joke. But hey the Flyers still fight, kinda. Well, okay, they’ve had one actual fight (because I can’t in good conscience call Dan Carcillo mugging Matt Bradley a “fight”) in five games since Peter Laviolette came aboard. But in theory there is a willingness to fight.
So anyway why not have these teams play each other twoish weeks before the big Winter Classic showdown to build some hype…
With one of the dullest games of the season. Scoreless after one. Just 1-0 after two, then two garbage goals and an empty netter in the third. Weeeee. And it’s not even like there was the hint that maybe someone would ruminate upon the idea of fighting on a speculative basis. The closest anyone came was when Vladimir Sobotka and Scott Hartnell had what would best be described as a frank exchange of ideas that never ventured within the general area of fisticuffs. Their arguments, from the look of things, boiled down to Sobotka contesting that Daniel Briere had behaved in a way that was less than gentlemanly, and Hartnell countering that it was in fact Sobotka who was behaving in a disrespectful manner.
How utterly dull. It’s a good thing they’re playing this next game outside because otherwise no one would have reason care even slightly.
Elsewhere…
Toronto 3, Ottawa 2
Phil Kessel scored another one tonight. I’m pretty sure he has more goals than the rest of the Leafs combined. That might be factually true but that’s the perception I’ve gotten from various Leafs blogs and I don’t care enough to verify. Who’ll argue?
Florida 7, New York Islanders 1
Nathan Horton had a hat trick and an assist. Stephen Weiss had a goal and an assist. They both have an absurd number of points in their last x number of games and that’d be cool if either was on my fantasy team but they’re not. Oh and obviously Dwayne Roloson got pulled for giving up five on 23, but Marty Biron did worse, coughing up two on three. Oops.
Atlanta 3, New York Rangers 2 (SO)
Every goal in this game was on the power play with the exception of Colby Armstrong, who scored shorthanded. That is, I think, the second shortie the Rangers have allowed in as many games. Ryan Callahan was on the ice for both of them but also scored power play goals in both games. That’s a fun story.
Nashville 5, Columbus 3
Steve Sullivan had a hat trick. I don’t know if there’s a guy that scores decent amounts of points that I forget exists more than Steve Sullivan.
Buffalo 4, Montreal 3
Client Jaroslav Halak only gave up four goals on 27 shots take that Carey Price.
Detroit 3, Phoenix 2
This was the first time Ilya Bryzgalov gave up more than two goals in like a month. That’s pretty crazy. I feel bad that he’s on such a feast-or-famine offensive team like the Coyotes.
Vancouver 3, Los Angeles 1
Whoa whoa whoa. Mason Raymond has 12 freaking goals this year, four more than Ryan Kesler? He’s not even on pace to hit 20 this year why did people act like he was good last season? Oh right, he had almost had 60 points. What a superstar that kid is.
